


Clexa Bakery AU

by okthencharlie



Series: Clexa Bakery AU [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: AU, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Bakery, F/F, Lesbian Relationship, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-03-30 15:43:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3942367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okthencharlie/pseuds/okthencharlie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lexa works in a bakery and Clarke, a privileged 'sky-kid' applies for a job. Chapter 1 introduces Lexa's life.<br/>**Warning, implications of alcohol abuse**<br/>*Please no hate, if you have an issue with anything I'm writing, talk to me about it and I'll do my best to accommodate you*</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Glimpse of Lexa

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like this! This is my first ever fic, so I'm a bit shaky on it, but let me know what you think :)  
> The fic draws on some personal experiences, so I hope I did them justice

Lexa sighed and pressed the back of her wrist against her forehead, mopping up some of the sweat that had accumulated there. She leaned up against the counter top, trying to ease some of the ache that had built up in her feet after six hours of standing on them. Only two more hours to go until her shift was over and she could go home – _home,_ where she’d have to clean up the huge mess that would no doubt be awaiting her before she could even think about doing homework or eat or even just sit.

“Hey Lex, look alive, Indra’s coming!” Lexa’s best friend, Anya poked the girl in the shoulder as she walked by. Lexa sighed again as she watched the girl tug open the walk-in fridge and disappear again. She would kill to stand in the cool air in there, even if only for a moment. However, the sound of her hard-ass boss Indra’s footsteps jolted her into action, turning on the break slicer and bag-puffing machine in one swift motion. While the bread worked its way down the ramp-like structure and into the blades, Lexa watched as the bag-puffer sent a stream of air up, forcing the plastic bag, held by two pegs on one side, open. Grabbing the sliced loaf of bread, Lexa shoved it into the bag, tearing the plastic from the pegs, and squeezed the some of the air out of the bag, before twist-tying it shut, all performed in one swift motion while she watched the jet of air force the next bag open as the next loaf of bread made its way through the blades.

“Lexa! Good, you’re almost done,” Lexa turned and smiled at Indra.

“Yup,” She said, “Only five loaves left. It’ll take me two minutes. What’s up?”

“Gustus is getting antsy – needs a smoke. You can take over the front of the bakery when he goes?” Lexa nodded in response to her boss, who offered a curt nod in return. “Good. Well, now that that’s settled, I’m off for the weekend.” Indra patted her bag absentmindedly. “Don’t forget I won’t be in tomorrow or Saturday, because –”

“-You and Erik are going to the lake for the long weekend, I know! Don’t worry, Gustus, Anya, and I will take great care of the bakery.” Lexa smiled reassuringly to her boss who nodded with a rare small smile in response. “Have a good weekend!” She called out as her boss walked away.

“Bye, Indra!” Lexa heard Anya shout from the walk-in.

“Bye, sweetie!” Indra called back and Lexa smirked. Yeah, her boss liked to play the part of hard-ass, but she was really just a big softie inside, with a particular soft spot for her three most senior employees, whom she treated like her own children.

Once Lexa bagged the last of the bread, she walked out into the front of the store, which looked more like a corner store than a bakery, what with the display fridges full of drinks and frozen food (all homemade by Indra and Anya, of course) and the shelves with chips, produce, coffee, and various other goods. She walked to the rack next to the glass-topped cooler containing the in-store cakes and stacked the loaves of whole wheat and white bread neatly on top.

“Hey, Lex,” Gustus said with a nod as he finished ringing a customer in on the 90’s style cash register, with yellowed, worn off buttons that only the veterans of Grounder’s Bakery knew how to navigate.

“Hey, Gus,” She replied, finishing with her stack and moving over to be behind the counter. She used her hand to sweep up some of the crumbs that had fallen from the racks mounted on the wall that were filled with the bread that they didn’t display on the floor with the sliced white and whole wheat – everything from baguette to rye to challah (Lexa’s personal favourite). The crumbs from the rack tended to fall on the counter that capped several cupboards and drawers used for storage by the employees, and given that Indra liked the place to be spotless, the counter had to be wiped several times a day.

“Excuse me,” a loud voice drew Lexa out of her reverie and she whipped around to face the girl standing on the other side of the display case, which stood opposite to the counter. Lexa forced a smile as she took the girl in. Clad in a blue plaid kilt, dress shirt, blazer and black oxfords, complete with navy knee socks and a blue tie which matched the skirt, there was no doubt that this girl attended the sky school – which is what the people in Lexa’s neighbourhood called the elite “Skylar Henson Academy” – also known as the rich kid school. Lexa hated them – everyone from Tondc – basically a slum in the massive city of Polis – hated the sky school kids. They were snooty and arrogant, and they always acted like they were better than the kids at Tondc High School, which was the massive high school Lexa attended. It was a total dump, made of cement walls and complete with metal detectors at the entrance and bars on the windows. Lexa tilted her head slightly at the pale, dark-haired girl. Why had she decided to leave the comforts of the Ark (the gated community which housed most of the sky school kids) to come to the slums? Wasn’t she afraid of getting shot by one of the gangs (all of whom were united only by their mutual hatred for rich kids)? Besides, shouldn’t she be in school? Lexa knew for a fact that THS was the only high school to in the city to have gotten Thursday and Friday off for the long weekend – besides, the girl’s uniform was a dead giveaway.

Lexa didn’t ask that, though. Instead, she put on her biggest smile and said, “Hi there! How can I help you today?” The dark haired girl rolled her eyes slightly at Lexa’s cheerfulness.

“I want two of those, and one of those. Box them separately, and I’ll be back in a minute to pay. I’m getting a sandwich.” She said, and flounced to the back of the store to look at the glassed-in display of sandwiches, where Anya was standing with a pair of tongs, ready to pass the girl whatever she chose. Lexa could see the strain it was taking for Anya just to keep her face neutral at the girl’s rudeness, let alone smile. As she bent to open the display cases and deposit the desserts into the boxes, Lexa felt a nudge on her shoulder.

“’Scuse me, Lex,” Gustus said quietly.

“Smoke?” Lexa asked, and he nodded.

“You and Anya will be okay with me out back?” He asked, shooting her a concerned look. Lexa knew he didn’t like to leave just the two girls to man the store, especially in a neighbourhood as rough as theirs.

“Come on, Gus,” Lexa said. “Even if you don’t think I can take anyone, do you really think Anya couldn’t?” She gestured to Lexa, who was clearly trying very hard to not kill the pretentious girl in front of her. Gustus sighed and smiled slightly.

“Alright, commander,” He said, offering a mock solute to Lexa as he squeezed past her in the small space that was between the counter and the display cases. Lexa rolled her eyes at him, but smiled slightly at the affectionate nickname given by her friends – a direct result of her no-nonsense, take charge attitude. Sighing for the umpteenth time that shift, she quickly boxed up the pastries that the sky school girl had ordered, bringing them up to the till and waiting patiently as the girl sauntered up there with two sandwiches in hand.

Quickly ringing everything in, Lexa put on her cheery work voice once again to ask, “Is this everything today?”

“No, I’ll also get a pack of Pall Mall Blue, Kings,” The girl said, looking Lexa in the eyes with a challenging expression.

“Can I see your ID, please?” Lexa asked, almost sarcastically – there was no way this girl was old enough to buy cigarettes. She didn’t even look like she was as old as Lexa, who wasn’t even quite seventeen yet. The girl rolled her eyes.

“Whatever,” She said, “Just that stuff, then.”

Lexa smirked slightly at the girl’s failure to trick her. “Total comes to 21.13, please,” She said, typing the numbers into the small interac machine as the girl wordlessly held out a Visa Platinum credit card. _Looks like mommy and daddy will be covering this lunch_ , Lexa thought somewhat bitterly. The machine dinged cheerily and Lexa wordlessly tore off the receipts it spat out, sticking the first in the register and passing the second to the dark-haired girl.

She was about to put the items into a plastic bag and send the girl on her way when she heard the door ding as it was opened, followed shortly by Anya calling out, “Link! I didn’t know you were coming in today!”

“What can I say? I like to keep you guys guessing,” the ridiculously tall, muscular, and handsome guy said with a shrug. The girl who Lexa was helping whipped around at the sound of his voice.

“Lincoln!” She all but squealed. “I didn’t know you knew about this place!” Gone was her sullen, snobby attitude. Now she was all warmth and joy – Lexa saw Anya glaring at her. Lincoln looked surprised.

“Octavia!” He said. “Hey! Uh, yeah, I actually work here. What are you doing here?” Lexa watched in fascination as the sky girl completely changed her tune from being rude to chipper. It was amazing what some girls would do when they liked a guy – and there was no doubt Octavia liked Lincoln. Lexa couldn’t really understand it. Sure, Lincoln was attractive, but he was such a… friend. Like a brother. Lexa shook her head slightly. She didn’t think she would ever find a guy that made her act like this Octavia girl was acting now – overly excited, like a puppy. _Maybe I’m just not meant to find love,_ Lexa thought to herself. After all, she’d never had any crushes on the boys she’d met – a lot of them had turned out to be great friends, but none were able to broach that border of friendship and something more in her mind. They were all like brothers to her. In fact, Lexa had more male friends than female friends – really, the only girls she liked to hang out with were Anya and Echo (she didn’t think working with Indra counted as ‘hanging out’). Sure, there were lots of girls whom she had been interested in getting to know better – lots of pretty girls who seemed nice and like they would make for a good friend – but Lexa never got the nerve up to talk to them. It was weird, she was completely comfortable around guys, but as soon as she got around girls, she was strangely nervous. _Maybe it’s a female competition thing_ , she thought.

“Lexa, don’t think too hard there or you’ll wear out your brain before cash out tonight, and you know we need you to do the math for us!” Gustus, who must have just returned from his smoke break, ruffled Lexa’s hair affectionately, smiling down at her. She made a face at him and turned back to Lincoln and the mystery girl Octavia.

“Okay, awesome. I’ll see you Saturday!” Octavia said, all too brightly before flouncing out of the store, her bag of treats in hand. Lincoln turned to look sheepishly at his coworkers.

“Please, _please_ , tell me you didn’t just make a date with some pretentious _sky kid_ ,” Anya said, shaking her head in slight disgust.

“Come on, An,” Lincoln said, looking at Anya who raised an eyebrow unresponsively. He looked to Lexa and Gustus for support, but they just looked at him with disbelieving eyes. He sighed and shook his head. “Look, you guys know me – normally I’d never even _dream_ of speaking to a sky kid, let alone date one, but Octavia… There’s just something about her that draws me in. She’s intense and passionate, and we just _connect_ on such a fundamental level… I don’t know how to explain it. It just feels so right when I’m around her.” Lincoln shrugged and looked somewhat sheepishly at the ground. Lexa had never heard him talk like that about anyone, let alone some sky kid – she figured this Octavia girl must have been something pretty special to break through to Link.

“How’d you meet, anyway?” Anya asked, her voice significantly nicer than it had been before Lincoln’s explanation.

“We were at the same party two weeks ago. Some drunk guys broke out into a fight, and she jumped right into the middle of it, yelling at them to stop while trying to physically restrain them, even though they had at least 70 pounds each on her. It was pretty hot, actually. So I got in there and broke it up, and we started talking, and she’s actually really cool,” Lincoln looked around for support.

“Well, I’m glad you’re finding love, or whatever,” Anya said. “I mean, I guess you could have picked a worse sky girl to date. At least she’s hot, right Lex?” Anya looked at her best friend with a grin. Lexa felt her face heat up enormously.

“I, um, I mean, I don’t know, I don’t really look at girls like that I guess,” Lexa stammered, blushing. She didn’t know why she couldn’t just answer Anya’s question – yes, Octavia was hot. Why didn’t it feel so wrong for her to say that – to think that? All girls looked at other girls, it was normal. Anya rolled her eyes at Lexa’s non-answer and resumed restocking the cookies in the glass display.

“Whatever you say, Lex. You sleeping over tonight?” Anya asked glancing over to her. Some nights, when Lexa just couldn’t deal with going home to face her mother, she stayed at Anya’s place because she had her own apartment. It was tiny, but Anya didn’t mind sharing a bed with Lexa, given that she understood the younger girl’s home troubles.

“Nah,” Lexa said, kneeling to take out an almost-empty tray of cookies from the bottom shelf of the display so she could restock them. “Gotta go home sometime, or my mum might think I’ve died. Or not. She might not notice.” Lexa laughed in an I’m-joking-but-also-I’m-not sort of way, which she knew Anya understood. The older girl offered her comfort by patting her shoulder a couple of times before moving to put her now-full tray of cookies back in the display case.

“Alright,” Anya said, loudly enough for Gustus and Lincoln, who appeared to be having an in-depth conversation about hand-to-hand combat, to hear. “I’m heading out. I trust you guys can close without me?”

“Please, Anya, we’ve got the commander here,” Gustus said. “We won’t be allowed to leave until everything is perfect and you know that.” Anya laughed and Lexa made a face at him.

“I don’t know what I was thinking. Of course you are in good hands!” Anya said as she pulled her sweater from the employee cupboard. Lexa stuck her tongue out at the girl.

“It’s not my fault I know how Indra likes things!”

“See you tomorrow – bright and early!” Was the sarcastically cheerful response she got from Anya.

“See ya, An,” She said back.

 

* * *

 

 

The rest of Lexa’s shift went by with the blink of an eye. Only a couple of customers trickled in after 2:30, when Anya left. The main rush of customers always came at around noon when people came from nearby offices for the sandwiches made fresh every morning by Anya and Indra on the fresh-baked bread. The sandwiches were practically famous in Tondc, and as a result, every day approximately 150-200 sandwiches would be sold. Whatever was left over, one or two of the employees would take down to the main shopping area of the district to distribute to the homeless people sitting on the sidewalk with hats out for the shoppers passing by. It was a small gesture, but it was one of the many small things that made Grounder’s a well-known and widely loved shop in Tondc.

At the end of Lexa’s shift that day, there were ten sandwiches left over, which she and Gustus took to the small strip of clothing stores, banks, and restaurants a couple of blocks away. As they handed sandwiches to each of the homeless people they passed, Lexa and Gustus caught up on each other’s life. They talked about school (Gustus had almost saved enough to attend the local university in Polis next year, and Lexa was worried about not having enough extracurriculars to get scholarships next year when she would be in grade 12), work (including Lincoln and his new… whatever they were, as well as the boy Anya had been seeing – he got the Gustus Stamp of Approval), and finally, love. Gustus and his girlfriend had recently broken up because she had gone to university this year in a different city, and she didn’t want to do long distance, but that didn’t stop him from feeling guilty about his interest in the barista from the coffee shop two blocks away from Grounder’s.

“Gus, it’s really shitty that Jules wasn’t willing to do long distance, and for that I’m really sorry, but it’s October. You guys broke up almost two months ago, and I think that is a perfectly respectful amount of time to wait before getting yourself out there and meeting someone new. Like this barista girl, for instance,” Lexa looked at him pointedly. Gustus sighed.

“Maybe you’re right, Lex. Maybe I should give it a shot. But anyway, enough about my problems… What about you? Any… people… in your life? Come on, you know I have to meet them before you’re allowed to date anyone!” Lexa laughed, but upon hearing the hesitation before the ‘anyone’, a small voice in her head whispered, _he knows_. Knows what? Lexa didn’t know.

“Ah, no, no one special. Trust me Gus, you’d be the first one I tell!”

“Good,” Gustus said smiling, “I know you and Anya have the whole best friend thing going on, but don’t forget who your brother is!” He said gesturing to himself, and Lexa laughed. She bumped his arm with her shoulder, thinking back to the pact they’d made when they she was five and he was ten, that he would always be her brother and take care of her and she would always be his sister, and that they would always tell each other everything, even if they thought the other one might be upset by it. Those were back in the days when Gustus’s mom would look after Lexa after preschool, then school as she got older. Those were the days before either of them would realize how important their bond would be. Lexa watched as Gustus approached an elderly looking homeless women, offering her a choice between the three sandwiches they had left. She had shared so much of her life with him – everything, really, from her life at home to boys to friends to anxiety and depression… And yet, she still felt like she was hiding something from him. The only problem with that was that she didn’t know what it was, exactly.

 

* * *

 

 

After they finished handing out the sandwiches, Gustus insisted upon taking the bus with Lexa and walking her back to her house, which was no surprise for Lexa. He always dropped her off after a closing shift, even though the latest she would be heading home would be around 9 if she were distributing the left over sandwiches. Lexa appreciated it, because the one time that she had worked a closing shift without Gustus, she had taken the bus home by herself, and even though it was only a 20 minute ride, she had been tense and uncomfortable the whole time, clinging onto the Swiss army knife Gus had given her ‘for protection’. With Gus, though, she felt safe. No one wanted to mess with the 6 foot 3, 230 pound weightlifter-looking guy.

Gustus waited at the base of the walkway from Lexa’s tiny house, as was their tradition. He hadn’t actually stepped foot inside the house Lexa shared with her mother in two years, because Lexa had said that she didn’t want him to see it, and he had respected and accepted that instantly/ Now when they hung out, they went to his house, the park or playground, or they just wandered along the short stretch of shops, maybe grabbing some homemade soup.

As Lexa opened the door, she turned and waved to Gustus, who nodded and held a hand up signaling his goodbye. Lexa closed the door quietly and sighed, turning around to look at the mess that was her house. Normally it wasn’t so bad as it was today, but she had worked closing shifts after school every day this past week, and hadn’t had any time to tidy up. It was dark and dank and smelled like stale air and booze. Lexa rubbed her eyes tiredly, but knew that she couldn’t leave this mess for another day. She opened the blinds and the windows in the small living room and kitchen to brighten up and air out the house a bit and, assuming (correctly) that her mother would be passed out in her bedroom as per usual, Lexa began to gather up the scattered mess of liquor bottles surrounding the couch. She picked up the trash, vacuumed up the crumbs from chips and pretzels and whatever else her mother had snacked on in the middle of one of her binges that week. She even went so far as to dust before going into the kitchen and grabbing a huge glass of water and two advil tablets to take to her mother’s room. She paused outside the door of her mother’s room, taking a deep breath before venturing inside. It was dark and messy, with clothes strewn about the floor. There were more empty bottles of alcohol in there, as well as half-eaten foods, some of which had started to mold. Lexa sighed and placed the glass of water and advil on the nightstand next to her passed out mother. She gathered up all the bottles and dishes and took them to the kitchen to dispose of them properly. By the time she had finished all that, it was 11:30 – Lexa had to be awake in 5 and a half hours if she was going to make it to the bakery on time for the 6:30 am opening shift she was scheduled for. Lexa sighed, and instead of putting on her pyjamas and going to sleep like she knew she should, she pulled out her Pre-Calculus textbook – she wouldn’t be getting any scholarships for university if she didn’t get top grades, and if she didn’t get scholarships, she’d have to stay in the same shitty town living her same shitty life. The only thing keeping Lexa going half the time was the knowledge that in two years, she’d be in some other city away from her old life – away from her mother. 


	2. Skeleton's Out of the Closet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You guys were so nice about the last chapter, so I'm continuing the series! I hope you enjoy the chapter :)

Lexa was dead on her feet at work the next day, exhaustion getting the best of her.

“Lex, man, what’s up with you today?” Anya asked when Lexa failed for the third time that day to give a customer the correct change. Lexa sighed. She was off her game and she knew it – she had only gotten two and a half hours of sleep the night before as the math problems assigned were surprisingly difficult and required several Khan Academy videos to get through one practice text.

“I’m just tired, An, it’s nothing,” Lexa said with a shrug and a yawn.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – you’re running yourself ragged, Lexa. I know you need scholarships, but they won’t do you any good if you are too worn out to even go to university!” Anya said, worriedly. “Come to my place after work today – take a little break from your responsibilities and watch Pitch Perfect with me! I’ll even order Indian take-out,” The older girl said with a grin, knowing that butter chicken was Lexa’s weakness. Lexa grinned back.

“Fine,” She said with a laugh. “I’ll come over, but only if we can get coconut naan _and_ regular naan.”

“Deal,” Anya said with a grin, sticking out her hand. The two girls shook on it with slight giggles. The door chimed then, indicating a customer. Lexa turned to look at the person entering the store and felt her heart stop in her chest. The girl who entered, looking nervous and out of place in her black high-waisted shorts and white sleeveless blouse, was easily the most beautiful person Lexa had ever seen. She almost felt as though her eyes were bugging out like a cartoon character’s as she gazed, transfixed, at the way the girl’s wavy blond hair flowed like a waterfall over her shoulders. She felt her chest tighten as the world’s most amazing, sparkling blue eyes swallowed her own eyes, which did an involuntary once-over, taking in every inch of the blond girl’s perfection.

“Hi,” the girl said, and even her voice was perfect, not the ditsy, fake-dumb voice that most girls these days adopted. It was deeper than expected, with a sexy natural raspiness. _Sexy?_ Clarke thought. _Since when have I thought anyone was sexy – let alone a girl?_ Lexa swallowed hard and forced a smile.

“Hi,” She replied. “Can I help you with anything?” The blond girl smiled, showing her perfect, white teeth.

“Yeah, actually,” She said, and she reached into the reusable bag she was carrying. Lexa blinked at the bag in surprise, not having noticed it initially. “My friend came by here and bought some of your food, and she let me have some of it, and it was really delicious and I knew I had to come here because anywhere that makes such delicious pastries and sandwiches is a place worth knowing and… and I’m rambling,” the girl smiled sheepishly as Lexa blinked in surprise at the quick onslaught of words. “Anyway,” The blond girl said, “I brought a resume in case… Well, in case you were hiring.” Lexa’s mouth opened in surprise.

“You… I mean, you want to work here?” She asked incredulously. Everything about the girl – her clothes, her hair, even the way she talked screamed wealth – it was painfully obvious to Lexa that this girl was so, so far out of her league – in terms of her wealth, that is. Lexa couldn’t comprehend why an obviously rich girl, whom she wouldn’t be surprised to hear came from the Ark, would want to work at a ramshackle little bakery in the heart of Tondc.

“Look at this place,” The girl said. “It’s amazing. Of course I want to work here!” The blond grinned. “I’m Clarke, by the way. Clarke Griffin.” She held out her hand for Lexa to shake.

“Lexa,” The dark haired girl said, slightly dazed by the cool touch of the girl’s hand on her own. _I could get used to holding this hand_. Lexa shook her head slightly at her thoughts, unsure as to where they were coming from. “I’ll, um… I’ll make sure my boss gets your resume, Clarke,” Lexa liked the way the other girl’s name tasted on her lips – it felt _right_ in every way. Clarke gave another blindingly beautiful smile and nodded her thanks.

“I’d better head out now, but I’ll probably be back, or I’ll call in or something!” She said eagerly. Lexa nodded, raising her hand in farewell as the blond girl walked briskly out the door, offering a cheery wave as she went. Lexa simply stared at the door for a long time after the girl was gone, mesmerized by the image of the girls swaying hips dancing across her eyes.

When she finally tore her gaze from the door, Lexa noticed Anya watching her curiously. “What?” She asked self-consciously. Anya said nothing, simply shrugged and returned to her task of reorganizing the trays of cookies and pastries.

Lexa remained distracted for the remainder of the day, her mind occupied by the images of the blond girl playing on repeat. She went through the day as if in a trance, performing her duties mechanically. It wasn’t until well after her shift had ended that Anya tore her from her thoughts.

  

* * *

 

 

“So that Clarke girl was pretty, hey,” Anya said carefully as they got on the bus to go to her apartment, looking at Lexa out of the corners of her eyes. Lexa glanced over to her.

“I guess… I mean, I didn’t really notice…” She mumbled, a slight flush working its way to her cheeks.

“Oh, come on, Lex,” Anya pushed, “I saw you looking at her – I know you had to have noticed!” Lexa frowned deeply at Anya, very aware of the six other people on the bus with them.

“Just give it a rest, An, geez. I don’t know why you’re forcing this so much!” Lexa shook her head, annoyed, and Anya sighed quietly.

“I’m not trying to force it, I just… I want you to feel like you can tell me anything. Anything at all! I won’t judge, you know that,” Anya said, keeping her voice low so as to not disturb the other passengers. Lexa’s throat felt tight. _What does Anya think I’m keeping from her? I tell her everything!_

“Anya,” Lexa said, her voice sounding slightly strangled, “you know I tell you everything. I’m not hiding anything from you.” Anya sighed, feeling mildly annoyed. She knew that it wouldn’t be easy for Lexa – the girl was an iron wall when it came to emotions – but she just wished sometimes that the girl would be honest with her feelings, so that everyone could stop tiptoeing around the subject.

“I’m just saying,” Anya said, slightly defensively, “If there was someone you liked… whether it was a boy _or a girl_ , you could tell me, and I would support you one million percent.” Lexa’s jaw dropped and her eyes bugged out.

“You think I like _girls_?!” She asked incredulously. “Like… Like I’m a lesbian or something?!” She shook her head in disbelief. “No, An, nonono!” She almost laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. Almost. _Was it really that ridiculous? It was probably normal for friends to wonder, especially when she had never had a boyfriend… but that wasn’t because she didn’t like boys, she just hadn’t met the right boy yet… right?_

“Okay… I mean, I’m not saying you’re a lesbian, or even that you like girls, I’m just… I mean, I guess I’m just curious… Lexa, what happened with Costia?” Lexa felt like she’d been punched in the stomach. She couldn’t breathe and she thought she might throw up.

She moved her mouth wordlessly for a few seconds before managing a strangled, “W-what?”

“Lex, I know _something_ happened between you and Costia. She told me as much when she handed in her letter of resignation for the bakery. I mean, I just assumed you weren’t ready to tell me anything about it yet, so I never brought it up, but it’s been over a year since she went to university, Lex, and you still haven’t told me. It’s killing me, feeling like you don’t trust me, and it’s killing me even more to see how you’ve changed over the past year. You seem… withdrawn. Sad. And I can’t just watch you suffer as a shadow of the person you once were! You need to talk to me, Lex. Let me share this burden with you,” Anya was holding Lexa’s hand in both of hers, practically begging her to talk. Lexa felt tears in her eyes. She had felt like shit ever since Costia left, but she just shoved those feelings down deeper and deeper – she had more important things to worry about than her own feelings. But now, with just a few sentences, Anya had brought all of those feelings back up to the surface, and Lexa just wanted to lean into her best friend and cry.

Instead of crying, however, Lexa bit back her tears and said, “It was dumb. We were kids experimenting – it didn’t mean anything… to either of us.” _Even though I didn’t realize that at the time_ … She thought sadly. Truthfully, she still looked Costia up on Facebook fairly regularly, and the speed with which Costia seemed to move on from their… Whatever it was… Hurt Lexa. Swallowed up by the recollection of the pain Costia had inflicted on Lexa during their short… relationship, Lexa stayed silent as she pulled the cord for the bus to stop at Anya’s street. Anya stayed respectfully quiet beside Lexa, leaving her to sort out her own thoughts about the situation, until they had made it back to her apartment and were cozied up on the couch.

Then, looking cautiously at Lexa, Anya said, “I know she has a boyfriend, now, Lex. And it’s okay if that hurts you,” At that, Lexa looked over at Anya, and there was such pain in her eyes that Anya simply pulled the girl into a tight hug, as if she was trying to squeeze the agony from her younger friend’s spirit. Lexa felt one tear, then two, then a flood escape her eyes. They sat like that for a long time, Anya holding Lexa, rubbing her back and stroking her hair soothingly, and Lexa sobbing quietly into the girl’s shoulder. Finally, when Lexa felt like there was no water left in her body to cry out, she pulled back a bit. Her throat felt raw and swollen from the tears, and her eyes were puffy and sore. Anya released her from the hug, but kept hold of the girl’s hand. Lexa looked down at the paisley blanket that was lying on her lap, tracing its patterns with her free hand. She knew that such a visceral reaction would not have come up if Costia hadn’t meant more to her than she dared to admit. For so long, she denied the pain that Costia had caused her, saying that it was just pain from missing the girl when she had to leave for university – not pain from the end of the relationship. As they sat on the blanket, though, Lexa knew that at one point, she had loved Costia, and she admitted to herself that that love she felt had been different from the love she felt for Anya and Gustus. And now Costia was loving someone else the way Lexa used to love her. And Anya was right – that did hurt. It hurt more than she could ever imagine… And she knew in that moment that Costia was never just a friend. Because Lexa didn’t just love her – she had been _in love_ with her. And she felt weak because of it.

“Anya?” She asked quietly. The older girl squeezed her hand.

“Yeah, Lex?”

“I think I might be… I think that… I think what you think I am is right. ‘Cause like… Maybe Costia was experimenting but… but maybe I wasn’t? And Clarke is really pretty, isn’t she?” Lexa said, unable to say the actual word _lesbian_. She carefully looked at Anya’s expression, which had morphed from sympathy to a huge smile.

The older girl once again pulled Lexa into a tight hug, whispering, “I love you so much, Lex. Thank you – thank you for telling me. And Clarke is gorgeous, but nothing compared to you. And Costia is an idiot for not realizing that!”

Lexa felt so beyond relieved. She had no idea how much she had been weighed down by something she hadn’t even really acknowledged about herself until this moment. She felt like she could laugh again, like she could enjoy herself for once, without having to worry about the consequences of not studying or not being there to take care of her mother. She felt like a carefree child, relentlessly happy.

 

* * *

 

 

They were halfway through Pitch Perfect with mounds of Indian Food on Anya’s black and white ceramic plates when Lexa realized just how much Anya had been dropping painfully obvious hints questioning Lexa’s sexuality… She couldn’t help but wonder…

“Hey, An?” She asked timidly. Anya tore her eyes from the scene where the ‘sock-apellas’ were destroying Lily Allen’s song ‘Fuck You’.

“Yeah?”

“I couldn’t help but notice you… Um, you gave me lots of chances to… um, I mean...”

“Opportunities to come out?” Anya asked with a smirk. Lexa blushed and nodded.

“I just mean… How long have you thought…”

“Oh, Lex,” Anya said with a slight laugh, resting a hand on the girl’s arm, “I’ve known since the day we met, when you first started at the bakery.” Lexa gaped at her.

“That… That was _two years ago_ , Anya! How… How could you not ask me sooner?! And how did you even know?! I didn’t even know!”

“I was being respectful,” Anya said with a shrug. “I assumed when you were ready, you would tell me! I didn’t think it would take so goddamn _long_ though! Hence me having to force it out of you a bit,” Anya smirked as Lexa stuck her tongue out. “And I don’t really know how I knew… I could just tell, I guess. You never talked about boys or seemed interested in them, even though apart from Echo, you only had guy friends.” Lexa nodded, digesting this.

“And Gus and Lincoln… and Echo?”

“Oh, sweetie. We all know. Always have. They’re just more patient and subtle than me!” Lexa couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t sure if she should be annoyed with them given that they’d clearly talked about this at length behind her back, or if she should just be happy that they all apparently knew and didn’t care in the least. Maybe a bit of both…

“Should I… like, tell them? Or something?” Lexa asked, nervously. Even though Anya claimed they all knew, the idea of telling them made her feel a bit sick. Anya didn’t seem concerned, though.

“You don’t have to if you aren’t ready. I mean, they’ll understand, and I doubt you’ll get a big reaction or anything from any of them when you do tell them, but that day doesn’t have to be tomorrow. I mean, honestly, you don’t even have to formally do it I don’t think. You could probably just be like, hey guys, this is Clarke, she’s my girlfriend.”

“Anya!” Lexa practically shouted, horrified. “I said she was _pretty_! I never said I wanted to date her! I don’t even know her!” Anya laughed.

“Whatever, you get the point,” She said with a slight chuckle. “I’m just saying, I don’t think a formal coming out is necessary. Unless you want to do it for yourself, but don’t feel like you need to do it for us.” Lexa nodded thoughtfully. She wasn’t totally sure what she would end up doing – whatever it was, she would decide in the moment.

“Thanks,” She said, and Anya nodded.

“You’re welcome. Now shut up, you’re ruining Pitch Perfect. Just stare shamelessly at the perfection that is Bechloe.”

“What the fuck is a Bechloe?” Lexa wrinkled her nose.

“Um, the ship name of Beca and Chloe, obviously,” Anya rolled her eyes at Lexa’s ignorance.

“Ship?” She asked, possibly more confused.

“Oh my god, you are such a bad lesbian.” Lexa felt butterflies in her stomach at the word _lesbian_. That was what she was. Officially. She was a lesbian. She couldn’t help but smile a little bit. Anya noticed the girls reaction and smiled with her, bumping Lexa’s shoulder with hers as she explained, “When you ship two people, it means you want them to be in a relationship. OTP means one true pair, so that’s like, your ultimate ship. So like, if Beca and Chloe are your OTP, you want them to be together more than anyone else.” Lexa nodded, finally understanding the strange jargon.

“Oh, ok. Well in that case, I will enjoy the perfection that is Bechloe!” She said, lightly mocking Anya’s tone, with a slight giggle. Anya shrugged.

“You laugh, but you know you ship it. Who doesn’t want two hot girls to get together?” Lexa rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue. That shower scene? There was some definite lingering there. She could see it happening… and she certainly wouldn’t be… opposed.

 

* * *

 

 

It was just over a week before Lexa got the surprise of a lifetime coming into work one day. Since her discussion with Anya, Lexa’s home and school life went on just as it always had. She woke up early every morning to do some last minute revision before school, made sure her mother got up and ate, and participated in her resume-building extra-curriculars during her lunch hour at school. Lexa’s work life, however, had done a complete 180. Even though she hadn’t explicitly told anyone but Anya about her sexuality, just having admitted it to herself made it so abundantly clear how much everyone already knew. Lexa no longer felt guarded at work – she felt completely liberated, like she could be herself. When a pretty girl walked into the store, rather than look to her feet and wait for the girl to ask her help, Lexa began offering timid smiles, and even quiet hello’s. Whenever this happened, Lexa could see Lincoln, Gustus, and Echo exchanging looks while Anya, now in the know, smiled smugly in the background. Lexa was loving work to the point where she could hardly wait for school to end so she could go to the place that now felt more like home than her house had felt like in a while.

One fateful Tuesday, however, Lexa arrived to work to see a not entirely unwelcome surprise waiting awkwardly by the employee entrance in the back of the store. Lexa felt her breath hitch slightly as the girl looked her way at the sound of her approaching footsteps. She forced her face into what she hoped was a neutral expression of casual indifference, and slowly approached the employee entrance, hitching her red Lulu Lemon bag higher onto her shoulder.

“Hey,” she said, smiling nervously.

“Hey,” Clarke said, and Lexa was entranced by the way her blond, wavy pony tail swished from side to side as she bobbed her head in greeting.

“So, um… what, uh… what are you doing here?” Lexa asked, taking her bag off her shoulder and twisting the handles in her hands.

“Oh! Indra didn’t tell you? I’m, uh… I just got hired. I think you’re supposed to train me,” The blonde’s blue eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled cutely at Lexa.

“Really?” Lexa asked, surprised. Seeing Clarke’s face fall slightly at her shock, she quickly added, “I just mean that I didn’t even know you got an interview. I’ve worked every day after school; I just would have thought that I’d have noticed if Indra had interviewed someone. Unless it was during the day, I guess,” Lexa asked, a questioning expression in her eyes.

“Oh, well I didn’t get interviewed. I just got phoned three days ago, and Indra asked me if I wanted to start working today. Apparently someone told her they thought I’d seem like a really good fit,” Clarke said, looking unsure. “I mean, I kind of thought it was you given that… well given that you were the only one I really talked to.”

“Oh…” Lexa said. She was about to say that it wasn’t her when she saw Anya shaking her head slightly behind Clarke. She kept her face neutral, but her eyes said, _really Anya?_ Anya smirked and raised her eyebrows suggestively, nodding towards Clarke. Lexa smiled at the blonde, who was looking at her expectantly. “Um, yeah. Yeah, actually, I did say you’d seem like a good fit when I gave her the resume. I guess that resonated with her or something.” Clarke blushed slightly and looked at the ground.

“Well, thanks,” She said somewhat shyly. Lexa nodded and swallowed hard, somewhat distracted by how cute Clarke looked peering up at the brunette through her ridiculously long eyelashes. The two stayed like that for a while, Clarke smiling timidly at Lexa and Lexa staring back intensely with a look of slight awe in her eyes.

“Lexa!” Lexa jumped hard at the sound of her boss calling her name from across the store. Lexa hurried to stow her bag in the employee cupboard, grabbing two aprons out of it before shutting it. She handed one to Clarke and put the other one on herself, wrapping it around her waist twice before tying it off. She stood up a little straighter as Indra approached, striding with authority across the store. “You met Clarke! Good. She’ll be closing with you tonight. You three will close the front and Lincoln will close the back. Anya’s off in an hour, so you’ll have to show her the ropes pretty quickly. We’re short-staffed right now because Gustus phoned in sick, so this afternoon will probably be quite quick-paced. Let’s hope you’re a fast learner,” Indra nodded towards Clarke, who looked thoroughly freaked out by the intense, brass-tax, no-nonsense woman standing in front of them. Lexa noticed the blonde stand a little taller, smoothing her apron with her hands as she nodded nervously.

“Sure, sure,” Lexa said, nodding casually, hoping her calmness would soothe the other girl slightly. She felt oddly protective of the girl – she didn’t want her to feel overwhelmed and quit, especially because the job was quite easy once you got the hang of things. Indra nodded at Lexa.

“Right, well I’m going to head out now, then. I’ll work on the schedule for the next two weeks tonight. You’re free every day but Wednesdays and Fridays?” Indra asked Clarke, who nodded vigorously, clearly too nervous to actually form words. Indra nodded once at the girl before affectionately patting Clarke on the shoulder. “See you tomorrow, dear,” She said.

“Bye,” Lexa said with a smile.

“Bye, Indra!” Anya called from the till, where she was helping a customer. Indra raised her hand in a slight wave, before turning and leaving, offering another wave of farewell as she passed Lincoln who was slicing bread in the back. Lexa turned back to face Clarke as Indra disappeared from their sights.

“Alright, Clarke. First step is to wash our hands here,” Lexa plunged her hands into a soapy bucket of warm water resting in the sink about half way down the counters against the back wall. Clarke followed suit, dipping her hands in and scrubbing them a bit with the cloth that was inside the bucket before drying them with the towel Lexa handed her. For the next hour, Lexa gave Clarke a quick rundown of how to run the front of the store, from how to change out the papers on the trays of cookies to restocking the trays and bagging or boxing up the goods customers wanted. Finally, ten minutes before Anya was set to leave, Lexa told Clarke to try helping a customer on her own. Lexa stood back next to Anya and watched the girl smile at the woman she was helping, looking only slightly frazzled.

“Hey, An, did you actually tell Indra –“

“That I thought Clarke would make an awesome addition and that she should definitely hire her? Of course.” Anya winked at Lexa, making her face burn with embarrassment.

“You’re an idiot,” Lexa said, bumping Anya’s shoulder with hers. Anya smiled easily.

“You’re welcome,” She said quietly as Clarke handed the woman her bag of pastries, gesturing towards the end of the display case where the tills were located on a slightly raised portion of the floor. Lexa grinned at Anya as the older girl walked toward the till to ring in the woman’s order.

“Good job, Clarke!” Lexa said, grinning. The blonde girl shrugged nonchalantly, but Lexa could see a proud smile peaking out from behind the forced calm expression. Lexa laughed slightly and patted the girl on the shoulder. “Seriously, though, are you sure this isn’t like your fourth or fifth shift?” She asked Clarke, who just laughed in response.

“Oh, shush,” She said, grinning. “My head doesn’t need to be any bigger than it already is!” Lexa laughed in slight surprise at Clarke’s humour. Thus far, the blonde had been quite quiet, nodding in acknowledgement at Lexa’s instruction, but not much beyond that. Lexa had begun to think that, while the girl was obviously gorgeous, there might not be much else to her, intellectually speaking. With this joke, though, Lexa hoped she might have been wrong.

“Alright, girlie,” Anya said, pulling Lexa into a quick hug as she traipsed by. “I’m off. Are you coming by tonight?”

“Nah, I think I had better stay home with my mom tonight,” Lexa said, returning Anya’s quick hug. “See you tomorrow, though.”

Anya nodded. “That you will. Love you, see you then! Nice to meet you Clarke!” She said brightly as she left the store, holding the door open for an elderly woman on her way out. Lexa watched as Anya jogged across the street and halfway down the block, reaching the bus stop just as her bus pulled up. Lincoln was in the back, as he had been for the past hour, slicing bread for an order he would have to drive over the grocery store after work. Lexa knew that he would be back there for a while yet, and she was suddenly very, very aware of the fact that she and Clarke were alone. _The rest of this shift might just be the hardest one ever._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not much Clarke, I know, but this chapter was already dealing with some kind of big stuff with Lexa, so I decided to leave it at this! More of the good Clarke and Lexa vibes next chapter though, promise :)


	3. Surprise Tag-alongs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More Echo, more on Lexa's past, and, of course, more Clexa!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a little longer than usual (for me anyway) and I'm sorry it's later than I hoped, but I've been crazy busy with work (of course)!

Going to work had become an experience of pleasure and pain – pleasure, because work meant getting to see Clarke. Pain, because work meant being forced to stare at Clarke without actually saying anything, because Clarke was very, very straight.

“I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you,” Anya said one Wednesday as she and Lexa were mopping the floor and cleaning the display cases in preparation of closing.

“What are you talking about, An?” Lexa asked. “Of course she’s straight. Have you seen her? There’s no way she’s into girls.”

“I’m just saying, I’ve seen her flat-out ignore guys flirting with her, and besides, I’ve seen the way she looks at you when you’re not looking,” Anya crinkled her nose. “It’s like how you look at her when she’s not looking. It’s disgusting.”

“I don’t look at her!” Lexa said, somewhat half-heartedly. Anya opened her mouth to retaliate when Echo emerging from the back bakery area interrupted her.

“Hey guys, I’m done back here,” Echo said, looking at the screen of her phone. “What else do we need to do here before locking up?” Lexa glanced up at the girl with her lightly wavy, sandy-brown hair pulled back into a ponytail.

“Nothing, really,” Lexa said, finishing up with the mopping at the same time as Anya finished wiping down the displays. “I think we pretty much just need to turn off the lights and lock up.”

“Sweet,” Echo said, looking up from her phone with a smile. “Fifteen minutes early!” Lexa smiled as she dumped the water out of the bucket she was using for her mop. She stowed the cleaning supplies and locked the cupboard that held them. “Hey, what were you guys talking about, anyway? Seemed serious,” Echo glanced curiously between the two girls. “I mean, not that you have to tell me,” The girl amended, seeing how Lexa looked sheepishly at the ground.

“It’s nothing important, really,” Anya said with a shrug and Echo nodded understandingly, “It’s just that _Lexa_ here has a little crush.” Echo stopped nodding. Her eyes got wide and her mouth quite literally dropped open.

“Who?” She asked incredulously. Lexa opened her mouth and closed it again, slightly shocked at what Anya had done. Anya, on the other hand, couldn’t contain her joy. She laughed at Lexa’s expression, turning and grinning evilly at a baffled Echo. Lexa sighed, feeling like there was a vice around her neck.

“I… It’s… no one,” She mumbled awkwardly, blushing furiously as she glared at Anya.

Looking slightly hurt, Echo said, “It’s okay, Lex, you don’t have to tell me. I know you’ll tell me when you’re ready.” Lexa sighed, frustrated.

“You know who it is already, Echo,” Lexa said. Echo looked slightly suspicious, studying Lexa’s face. The brunette bit her lip as she stared evenly at her friend, co-worker, and classmate. Suddenly, Echo’s eyes got wide, and her smile got even wider.

“Oh my god. Oh my god! Lex!” She squealed excitedly. Lexa blushed, but couldn’t help but give her friend a small smile. “Is it…” Echo bit her lip, as though she was afraid she was wrong and might offend Lexa. She glanced over to Anya, who nodded slowly. Echo let out a happy laugh. “It’s Clarke! Oh my god, I knew it! Shit, Lexa, I’m so proud of you! And you guys will be so cute together!” She wrapped the girl in a tight hug, and Lexa let out a laugh.

“Lexa’s worried she’s straight,” Anya said helpfully, earning an eye-roll from Lexa.

“Oh, Jesus, Lex, are you blind?” Echo asked, pulling away from the hug so she could look disbelievingly at the brunette. “That girl is so into you. It’s like, painfully obvious. To everyone. I mean, maybe she’s bi or something, but damn, she’s got the feels for you alright!” Lexa sighed slightly, her face slightly warm.

“Do you guys really think so?” She asked timidly. Echo and Anya both grinned at her.

“Of course. Who wouldn’t love you, Lex?” Echo said, giving the girl another quick hug. Lexa smiled.

“Thanks, guys.” She mumbled.

“Ok,” Echo said seriously, looking between the two. “Now we need to figure out how to get you guys on a date!” Anya nodded seriously and Lexa looked horrified.

“See, this is why Echo needs to know. Echo makes shit happen,” Anya said to Lexa. “Let’s talk logistics, here. Because lord knows Lexa probably isn’t ballsy enough to ask Clarke herself.”

“Hey!” Lexa called indignantly. “Two things: first, I am totally ballsy enough to ask her out. Second, I am not asking her out – not because I’m not ballsy enough, but because I don’t even know her! Like, actually. I know nothing about the girl.” Anya and Echo both looked at Lexa in shock. “What?” Lexa asked self-consciously.

“I’m sorry, but, um, you’ve spent how many shifts with her now?” Anya asked, Echo nodding her head at the question. Lexa just shrugged, looking slightly pouty.

“I don’t know. Seven. Why?” Anya rolled her eyes at the precise number.

“So you’ve spent seven – what? Five-hour shifts? 4 pm until 9 pm? – with her, and you know nothing about her? What do you talk about?” Anya said, shaking her head slightly.

“I don’t know. Nothing, really. I just don’t know what to say!” Lexa was sure her face was the colour of a tomato as she looked defiantly at her two best friends.

“Good lord… See, Lex, this is the problem with you hiding your crushes from us for so long… We don’t know how much you suck at flirting!” Anya said. Lexa sighed, mock-irritated.

“You guys both suck,” She said, shaking her head. “I will do things my way, okay? Besides, it’s getting late and I told my mother I would be home by nine thirty.”

“Okay, well before you go catch your bus, at least promise us you’ll try to actually talk to Clarke and get to know her a bit when you next work together,” Echo said with slightly raised eyebrows. Lexa sighed.

“Fine. Whatever, I’ll talk to her. Now may I please leave?” Lexa asked, looking at the time on her phone to ensure she wouldn’t miss her bus. Echo and Anya nodded and Lexa walked out the door, leaving it to the other two to lock the door and metal gate in front of it.  

Though she had scoffed at Anya and Echo’s concern with her lack of conversation with Clarke, when Lexa was being truthful, it had been concerning her from the very first training shift they had together, wherein Lexa had been too nervous to even look at Clarke, let alone talk with her about anything that wasn’t directly related to the job at hand. In fact, every shift that they had shared, Lexa’s brain simply shut off. She didn’t know how to make small talk around Clarke, she only knew how to turn off her emotions and command. Soon, though, Lexa wouldn’t be training Clarke – instead, she would just be working alongside the girl. Gone would be the long hours of close company between the two, and in would come a certain distance due to having to do different tasks. Lexa knew that she had to build somewhat of a rapour with Clarke before this happened, otherwise she never would. Lexa gulped, feeling the weight of the promise she’d made Echo and Anya, and she pulled out her phone, making a new Note entitled ‘Conversations with Clarke’. Lexa stared at the blank screen for an embarrassingly long time before typing the word, ‘siblings?’, only to erase it immediately and glance around to see if anyone near her on the bus noticed her idiotic conversation starter. She sighed slightly and nibbled absent-mindedly on her thumbnail, retyping the word. It wasn’t slick at all, but it was a start, and that was all she needed, right? Underneath ‘siblings?’ she wrote down music, school, grade (age), likes/dislikes, tv, and movies. Lexa shook her head at her own awkward, poor conversation starters. But she was willing to try anything to get in with Clarke.

Just as Lexa finished her list and was stowing her phone in her backpack, it buzzed in her hand. She glanced at the screen, unlocking it to read the text message from Echo.

**Echo** : Hey, Lex! Forgot to mention, Quinn is having a party this Friday. You in?

**Lexa** : Chill party or blow-out?

**Echo** : Chill – just a few people. He’s still in trouble after his last party so he wants to play it safe this time.

**Lexa** : Well, it’s not like I have anything better to do, so sure.

**Echo** : Glad to get such an enthusiastic response from you… I’ll DD, I’ll get you at 9 on Friday, k?

**Lexa** : ok:)

Lexa smiled to herself. At least now if she totally fucked things up with Clarke at work, she could get black-out drunk and forget Clarke even existed. Even as she thought that, though, Lexa knew it would take more than just obscene amounts of alcohol to make her forget about Clarke. 

 

* * *

          

It was 9:48 when Lexa closed the door to her house as quietly as possible. She leaned her forehead against the closed door and closed her eyes. She was too exhausted – both physically and emotionally – to wrap her mind around cleaning up whatever mess her mother had made that day.

“Alexandra Everhart, where have you been?” Lexa nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of her mother’s voice – clear and… sober – behind her.

“Mom! What are you doing sob… um, up?” Lexa blushed slightly at her blunder. Her mother ignored it, though, as Lexa knew she would. They didn’t talk about what her mom was like most days – instead, when she was having a good day, they both just did their best to make the most of it.

“Alexandra, it’s not even ten. I’m not elderly, and it’s not as though I have to get up for work tomorrow.” Her mom shrugged. “And, young lady, do not dodge my question.” She looked at Lexa sternly and Lexa looked blankly at her mother – a tall, intimidating woman, once beautiful but since turned hard, with sunken eyes and hollowed-out cheeks from a lifetime of loss and addiction. “Where have you been?” Lexa’s mother repeated slowly, as if she were talking to a child.

“Oh! Um, I was at work. I said this morning that I’d be home late,” Lexa said, not bothering to add, _which I guess you were too hungover to remember._

“Oh, of course. I guess I forgot!” Her mother said with a perfect housewife smile. Lexa smiled back, though hers felt significantly more strained than her mother’s looked.

“Right,” She said. “Of course.” There is a slight, awkward pause. Lexa and her mother don’t know how to talk to each other. They never did, even when Lexa was a little kid. Somehow, they both always managed to say the one thing that the other person didn’t want to hear. For as long as Lexa could remember, her father had done the mediating between the two, explaining that when Lexa didn’t respond to her mother, it wasn’t because she was being disrespectful, but rather it was because she didn’t want to engage in a confrontation – which were unfortunately frequent in Lexa’s house. He explained to Lexa that her mother’s loud form of expression was not intentional – she wasn’t actually mad at Lexa, but rather, anger was how she expressed her emotions. Without her dad around, though, Lexa and her mother had grown farther and farther apart. Lexa could no longer tell when her mother was shouting at her out of anger or when it was out of excitement or sadness. Lexa guessed it was mostly out of sadness. Lexa’s heart clenched slightly at the thought of her father. He was the first person to leave her, and by far the worst loss. It had been four years since her dad had died, killed in the line of duty. He was a cop, the head of his unit in Tondc. Unfortunately, living in Tondc, the death of police officers was not a rare occurrence, something which Lexa had only found out when she’d gone to the police station to watch the ceremony wherein her father’s photo was put up on the wall of fallen officers. The wall was really more of a hall, with almost every surface covered in images of the officers who never made it out of the Tondc precinct. Thinking about it made Lexa’s throat tighten and tears prick in her eyes – she felt like she was right back there, her father’s entire team of officers patting her back and offering consoling looks. That was what she remembered best about the day – the resounding sense of pity everyone was clearly feeling. That was the day that she decided she wouldn’t let anyone pity her ever again – even if she got hurt, she vowed she wouldn’t let it show. That was the day she withdrew her feelings of love and passion from her surface, and locked them deep away, never wanting to feel such a weakness again.

For her mother, that was the day she started drinking. The day she stopped going to work. The day she started making Lexa wish she could move away and never look back.

“Right, well I have a lot of homework to do for tomorrow, so…” Lexa broke the awkward silence that had settled over the two, her voice trailing off as she gazed in surprise at her mother’s disappointed expression.

“Oh, well I was hoping we could watch something together,” Her mother said, clearly making an effort to sound indifferent. “If you have to work though…” Her mother looked at Lexa with questioning eyes.

“No, let’s watch a show,” Lexa said then, surprising even herself at that. She wasn’t too sure what she was expecting to come of this… whatever it was, but she was tired, and the thought of her ten page lit paper was overwhelming. She needed a break. Her mother beamed at her, clearly thrilled at the prospect of mother-daughter bonding time. It almost made Lexa feel bad for avoiding her as much as possible. _Almost._

“Great! How about that show Glee you were obsessed with?” Her mom said cheerfully as she made her way to the couch resting in front of the television. Lexa cringed slightly – she hadn’t watched Glee since its first season, when it had been a guilty pleasure for her – something of which Anya and Echo were fond of reminding her.

“Ah, sure. I think there might be an episode starting in a couple of minutes,” She said, sitting a fair distance away from her mother on the couch. As the show began, the two watched in a slightly uncomfortable silence, with Lexa staring at her phone for a good part of the show.

“Ugh, it’s disgusting,” Lexa’s mother, distain practically dripping from her words, made Lexa raise her eyes from an article on ‘How to tell if a girl likes you!’ that Anya had sent her with a winky face. Lexa wasn’t entirely sure what was happening in the show, and she was about to ask when a distraught looking brunette gently kissed a blank-faced blonde. Ah. “I mean, it really should be banned, showing this type of trash on tv. Especially on a show like this – children watch this show! Impressionable children, who are now going to think that this – this _behaviour_ is acceptable! It’s outrageous, really.” Lexa’s moth had a bitter taste to it. She bit her lip slightly and looked at her mother out of the corner of her eye. She could see the woman shaking her head in disgust at the screen, picking up the remote to turn it off. “You would think that none of those actors cared about God,” She said, angrily. “Raised by a bunch of hippies, I’m sure, with no rules or discipline to steer them down the right path. Fat lot of good that method of parenting is doing those kids now,” Lexa’s mother nodded once, satisfied with her arguments. Lexa bit her tongue before she said something that would get her kicked out of her house – because as much as she couldn’t stand being around her mother, she needed somewhere to live, and Anya’s couch couldn’t cut it. Lexa sighed. Her father never would have ruined a tv show by spouting off about God and the sin of homosexuality, even if he didn’t agree with it. He probably would have just shaken his head slightly and not say anything at all. Her mother, though, had to make a fuss, ruining the show for both of them. Lexa stood and stretched slightly.

“I should go work on my lit paper,” She said, and her mother simply nodded, clearly no longer in the mood to bond.

“I’m going to have a glass of wine,” She replied, turning towards the kitchen.

_Of course you are,_ Lexa thought, shaking her head, frustrated, as she made her way to her small bedroom. _Of course._

 

* * *

 

Lexa got a text at exactly 9 o’clock Friday night, alerting her to Echo’s presence outside. The brunette sighed. She didn’t really feel like going to Quinn’s party, but she had promised, and all day she’d been getting excited texts from Echo. It was true, Lexa didn’t normally party that much, but she really didn’t think that her going to one fairly small party would warrant such an eager response. Shrugging to herself, Lexa glanced in the full-length mirror on the back of her door, scrutinizing her black skinny jeans paired with a plain white V-neck and a black leather jacket and little black ankle boots. She didn’t really care how she looked – it wasn’t like she was trying to pick anyone up that night – but given Echo’s excitement, she wanted her friend to think she’d put in at least a little effort. She grabbed a long silver necklace and threw it on as she ran down her path to where Echo’s third-hand, duct-taped VW Golf was idling. Though the exterior of the black car had definitely seen better days, the interior was, as always, immaculately clean as Lexa slid into the passenger seat.

“Hey! Damn, you look hot,” Echo grinned, taking in Lexa’s outfit. She had even gone so far as to let her hair down in soft waves framing her face, rather than pulled back in the multitude of braids she normally preferred.

Lexa laughed. “Thanks, E,” She said, rolling her eyes with a smile. “Now let’s go!” She smacked the dash for emphasis as Echo shifted the car from neutral to first gear.

“One small stop to make on the way,” Echo said, pulling carefully away from the sidewalk. Lexa glanced over, confused. “We’re meeting Clarke outside of work so we can give her a ride to the party.” Lexa’s jaw literally dropped as she gaped at Echo, not fully processing what she had heard.

“Um, I’m sorry, what? Echo! Please, tell me you’re joking right now!” Lexa felt like she had gone into shock. Clarke was going to be there? Drunk? With Lexa? Lexa gulped, unsure as to how she should handle the situation. She hadn’t totally fucked things up with Clarke at work yet, it was true, but drunk Lexa seemed much more likely to screw up… Lexa sighed. Why didn’t she wear something nicer? Her plain V-neck t-shirt felt like a really lame choice now, and she was silently kicking herself for not wearing her black tank top that really emphasized her cleavage and hugged her virtually non-existent curves. She had considered wearing it, but felt like black-on-black-on-black was too much, even for her. Echo seemed to read Lexa’s thoughts.

“Lexa! Just shut your brain up, ok? You look hot, trust me. Besides, do you really think that I, knowing Clarke was coming with us, would let you leave your house looking anything less than that?” Lexa swallowed and shrugged slightly, too overcome by nerves to talk. “Come on, Lex, give me some credit. No, I obviously would not let you leave looking anything less than perfect. Okay? Okay. Now stop looking so anxious and smile already, or Clarke will think you hate her!” Lexa sighed and pushed her face into a small smile. “Whoa, easy there, Lex! I can’t control myself when you look at me so seductively!” Echo pretended to cover her eyes so she couldn’t see Lexa, and at that, Lexa let out a genuine laugh, feeling slightly more relaxed knowing Echo would be by her side to help with her interactions with Clarke.

By the time they pulled into the parking lot by Grounder’s, Lexa and Echo were laughing and making jokes like normal. There was only one other car parked in the lot, a massive black Cadillac Escalade. Echo let out a low whistle as she pulled up beside the car. “Damn, Lex, why is Clarke working with us if she can afford _that_?” Echo’s eyebrows were raised. “Does she go to sky school or something? Cause I thought sky kids were the only ones rich enough for those cars,” Lexa shook her head, transfixed not by the car, but by the girl in the driver’s seat, fixing her lipstick in the rear-view mirror.

“I don’t know… I wouldn’t be surprised, though,” Lexa mumbled, biting her lip slightly as Clarke slid from her seat to the pavement, locking her car before opening the back door of Echo’s car.

“Hey, Echo! Hey, Lexa!” As Clarke closed the car door behind her, Lexa was intoxicated by the subtle sweet scent the girl carried with her. Echo grinned widely at Lexa with slightly raised eyebrows.

“Hey, Clarke!”

“Hey,” Lexa smiled weakly at the girl. She could feel her resolve to never love someone again crumble as she looked back into the blonde’s deep blue eyes.

“Are you sure you want to leave your car here?” Echo asked. “I mean, it’s pretty nice, it would suck if it got broken into, which is likely in this neighbourhood.”

Clarke didn’t respond immediately. She was busy looking shyly into Lexa’s dark, entrancing eyes. “Um, yeah, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” She finally answered, sounding distracted. Echo smirked.

“Alrighty, then. To the party?” She asked, not really expecting a response from the two, given how busy they were pretending they didn’t have a thing for each other. As the car started moving, Lexa turned around, albeit somewhat reluctantly. She glanced over at Echo, mouthing the words, _thank you_. Echo nodded and smiled in response, turning up the music that was playing on her phone – the cup song from Pitch Perfect 2, of course. Lexa rolled her eyes slightly at the sound of Beca and Chloe singing only to each other – Echo wasn’t exactly subtle.

Clarke started singing along absently, sort of half humming the words. Her voice was beautiful, and Lexa never wanted the girl to stop singing, even if the only reason she was doing it was to fill the somewhat awkward silence that had fallen over the inhabitants of the car. Echo nodded her head along with the music, occasionally joining Clarke in singing random verses while Lexa stared stoically out the window.

It was nearly 10 by the time they got to the party, and five massively drunk boys greeted them on the front lawn. “Heeeeeeeyyy, seeexxxyyy,” One particularly drunk boy slurred.

“Fuck off, Aron,” Echo smirked. Lexa glanced over at Clarke, who seemed unperturbed by the boys. They followed Echo up the stairs and through the rickety wooden door. As soon as the door opened, a wall of smoke, loud music, and teenagers hit Lexa. She narrowed her eyes at Echo.

“This is what you call chill?” She called out over the thumping bass. Echo grinned devilishly.

“Well I knew you wouldn’t come if I said it was the biggest party of the year!” Lexa swallowed anxiously. She didn’t really do well with crowds. She glanced at Clarke, who was looking a little apprehensive as she took in her surroundings. Echo sighed and rolled her eyes at the two of them. “Come on, you aren’t even properly inside yet! Let’s just get a couple of drinks in you guys and then we can find somewhere quiet to hang out for a while! Play sociables or something!” Echo nodded and smiled and Lexa nodded back, doing her best to ignore the sense of claustrophobia creeping up on her. Echo grabbed both of their hands and pulled Clarke and Lexa behind her, winding her way through the tiny house to the kitchen. Lexa wished she could just reach out and grab Clarke’s hand like that… her fingers twitched thinking about it.

Lexa dropped their hands and gave them both lukewarm beers from the counter. She grabbed a bottle of sprite, staying true to her word of being designated driver, and held it aloft, clearing her throat.

“I propose a toast!” She declared loudly over the music. “To new friendships and… Well, whatever else may come of this night!” Echo’s eyes flickered between Clarke and Lexa, the devious glint back in her eyes. The three girls tapped their cans together before tilting their heads to sip at their warm drinks.

For the first time in months, Lexa was having some honest-to-goodness fun. She was fairly drunk, having had two beers and four shots, not to mention stoned, thanks to Penn who had taken it upon himself to supply the party with pot brownies. Lexa had decided to have one more drink before cutting herself off, knowing that she had to work in less than six hours. She glanced at Clarke in amazement – the girl had had far more to drink than her, and yet she seemed significantly less drunk than Lexa felt. Lexa looked around peacefully. The weed made her feel calm, and took away all of her anxiety, as did the fact that, as the night wore on, more and more people had left, and now there were only a few scattered groups around the house. Now, she was perfectly happy to be sitting on the floor with six other people playing sociables.

“Wait. Waitwaitwaitwait. I forgot how to do the game rules.” Clarke said seriously, holding her hands up in a _slow down_ type gesture. Maybe she was more drunk than Lexa thought.

“You just take the card from the place where the cards are and then you get a thingy on the card and that means something and you do the thing, right?” Lexa said, keeping steady eye contact with Clarke as she explained. Clarke nodded her head slowly, seeming to understand.

“Right, right,” She said, looking Lexa in the eyes. “You are so smart. And pretty. You’re really pretty,” Clarke reached up and gently poked Lexa in the cheek. Lexa felt her face get warmer, but the weed was making it so that she didn’t really care if she felt embarrassed or not. So instead she just grabbed Clarke’s hand, pulling it away from her face and holding it for a minute, examining every inch of it.

“Your hands are nice, very nice, for holding. I like holding them.” Lexa said, before returning Clarke’s hand to her side.

“Lex,” Echo said, nudging the girl in the ribs. Lexa glanced over at her friend, annoyed. Echo gestured to the pile. “How about you get us started here, show Clarke how it’s done.” Lexa nodded, stretching out an arm to grab a card from the pile in the middle of the circle of people.

“Seven!” She crowed joyfully. Everyone groaned.

“You have to count up from one, and if you get a number with seven in it or is a multiple of seven, you say fuck you instead. Loser drinks,” Echo explained quietly to Clarke as Lexa started.

“Ooonnneee.”

“T-two,” Clarke said, unsure. Lexa nodded at her eagerly.

“Three.”

“Four.”

“Five.”

And so it continued until – “Fuck you,” Penn drawled.

“Twenty-eight,” Quinn said slowly. Everyone pointed.

“Drink up, loser!” A girl named Embry shouted. “Seven times four, twenty-eight! Ha!” Lexa wrinkled her nose at the girl. She’d never really liked Embry much – the girl had an opinion on everything, and she loved to make sure everyone knew what it was. Quinn stuck his tongue out at the girl and grabbed one of the shots from the centre of the circle, throwing his head back and swallowing it with a slight grimace. Echo drew the next card, a ten.

“Spin the bottle!” Penn said, happily. Lexa laughed and leaned closer to Clarke.

“Penn’s liked Echo since middle school,” Lexa whispered sloppily, and Clarke giggled slightly bumping her shoulder against Lexa’s. Echo rolled her eyes at the card and grabbed an empty beer bottle, sticking it in the middle of the circle and giving it a good spin. Everyone watched in anticipation as the bottle slowed to a crawl before landing on…

… Lexa. Lexa raised her eyebrows, opening her mouth to protest, but before she could, Echo shrugged and said, “Sorry, Lex.” She grabbed the brunette’s face and pulled her in, kissing her with a tightly closed mouth for a solid five seconds before pulling away. Lexa was slightly stunned as the crowd cheered at the kiss before moving on to the next card. The game continued for a while, with people getting drinking buddies (someone who had to drink whenever they did), rules for nicknames, and, of course, never have I ever, which was the fourth card Clarke drew.

“Never have I ever been high,” Clarke said with a laugh, having refrained from eating the pot brownies earlier. Everyone else put down a finger, Penn and Quinn, the resident stoners, both laughing in the process. Parties with either of them tended to result in a lot of people getting high.

“Hm… Never have I ever… Lexa crinkled her brow, unable to think. “Pass,” She said, shaking her head.

“Never have I ever… Kissed a girl,” Embry blurted out, smirking at Lexa and Echo. Both girls put down fingers, and out of the corner of her eye, Lexa saw Clarke do the same. She turned and gaped at the girl, a mixture of shock, excitement, and jealousy taking over her mind. Clarke grinned devilishly back.

“Never have I ever had a crush on a coworker,” Echo said, looking around innocently and ignoring Lexa’s angry expression. Lexa put down her last finger and sighed, grabbing a shot. Maybe she’s have more than one drink before leaving… “Clarke! Who did you have a crush on?” Echo’s voice interrupted Lexa, who nearly spat out her shot in surprise. She choked it down before turning to Clarke, seeing that the girl had indeed put down a finger on the last one. Clarke was bright red.

“I don’t think I should say,” She mumbled.

“Is it someone you work with now? At Grounder’s?” Echo asked eagerly. The blush spread out from Clarke’s cheeks to her ears and neck, and even her forehead seemed pink. She nodded slightly before burying her head in her hands in embarrassment. Echo laughed joyously, clapping the blond on the shoulder. Lexa’s eyes were wide. She looked rapidly between Echo and Clarke, simultaneously asking each what that meant. Echo shrugged then, and went back to sipping her sprite, saying, “Your turn, Lex.” Lexa sighed, having hoped for somewhat more of an explanation. Clarke’s face was still bright red, though, and she was looking intently at the card pile rather than at either of them.

“Two,” Lexa said, groaning slightly. She hated twos.

“Truth or dare?” Penn asked with a grin. Lexa sighed.

“Dare,” She said, rolling her eyes. She was probably the only person in the history of the world to consistently choose dare rather than truth – she would much rather make a fool of herself publically than open up about her personal life.

“I dare you to take Clarke to the coatroom and play seven minutes in heaven!” Echo crowed, clearly proud of herself. Lexa felt like her face was red as a tomato.

“No, Echo, come on! You can’t bring other people into the dare!” Lexa protested, annoyed that Echo was taking things so far. Echo wasn’t even the drunk one, shouldn’t she be the rational one right now?

“No, I like this,” Penn said with a nod. “I vote yes to this.” The others all nodded their happy, drunken agreement. Lexa frowned, about to open her mouth to change her answer to _truth_ when Clarke grabbed her wrist. Maybe it was the alcohol speaking, but Lexa could have sworn that she saw a glint of nervous excitement in the blonde girl’s eyes.

“Come on, Lexa. Let’s just get this over with,” Clarke said, and Lexa let the blond pull her to her feet, never breaking eye contact. The two leaned on each other slightly as they stumbled their way drunkenly to the closet by the front door. It wasn’t wide, but it was deep and had very few coats in it, meaning that there was more than enough room for the two to stand beside each other as Echo closed the door behind them. The two were thrown into total darkness, with the only light coming from the crack under the door. Lexa wasn’t entirely sure as to what she should do, so she simply sat cross-legged on the ground, pulling her phone out of her back pocket and turning on the flashlight function. Clarke sat across from her and smiled a little nervously. The awkwardness was out of control. Lexa cleared her throat.

“Don’t, um… Don’t worry, we don’t have to do anything… We can just, like, talk or something,” She mumbled, fiddling with her phone and causing the light to bounce around the room.

Clarke nodded. “If that’s what you want.” _No_ , Lexa wanted to shout. _No, I want to be in here with you and touch your skin and hold you in my arms and kiss you!_ But instead, she just nodded.

More awkward silence.

“What school do you go to?” Lexa asked finally, more out of desire to break the silence than genuine curiosity.

“Skylar Henson Academy,” Clarke said with a slight nod. Lexa smirked slightly. _Called it_. “Grade ten. And you’re at…”

“THS – Tondc High,” Lexa said quickly. “Grade eleven.” Another awkward silence filled the room. Lexa sighed inwardly. It was eating her alive, this awkwardness. She just wanted to lean in and kiss the perfect lips she’d spent a good portion of the night staring at. She shook her head slightly to clear it before saying, “So, um… why, uh… why did you agree to come in here? You didn’t have to, you know. My friends can be kind of assholes, but they wouldn’t actually make you come in here if you were uncomfortable.” Lexa nodded slightly, awaiting an answer.

Clarke smiled slightly, simply saying, “I’m not uncomfortable with you, Lexa.” Lexa smiled back.

“Good. Cause, I mean, I’m not uncomfortable with you either.” The two sat silently, just smiling at each other.

“Lexa?” Clarke whispered. Lexa met the girl’s eyes, her beautiful eyes, and stared. “Do you know who my co-worker crush is?” Lexa felt her face fall slightly, and she looked down and her hands, still playing with her phone. Her heart was a hard lump in her throat. Because now was the part where this beautiful fantasy was ruined – now was the part where Clarke declared her love for Echo or Anya, or even Lincoln, and asked for Lexa’s advice on how to proceed. The dream had been nice while it lasted, but all good things had to come to an end. Lexa shook her head dejectedly. Suddenly, she felt a touch, soft and warm and so, so _familiar_ and _comfortable_ , underneath her chin, and the slight pressure of Clarke’s fingers guided Lexa’s head up, until they were face to face again. “I think you do know,” Clarke whispered, leaning in slightly. Lexa swallowed hard, hoping Clarke couldn’t tell how nervous she was as she tilted her head to the right and let Clarke’s fingers guide her forward until their lips were mere millimetres apart, and they were breathing the same air. “It’s you,” Clarke whispered then, closing the small space between the two so that their lips met, soft at first, but then harder and hungrier. Their lips parted, and Lexa could feel Clarke’s tongue tracing her teeth delicately. They were both on their knees now, hands on each other’s hips, Lexa’s phone lying abandoned by their side. Lexa wrapped her arms around Clarke, bringing one hand up and tangling it in the girl’s hair, and using the other to pull Clarke even closer, as if that were possible. Clarke brought one of her hands up to cup Lexa’s face gently, letting her other hand stay where it was at Lexa’s hip, her fingers playing with the hem of Lexa’s shirt, and it all felt so insanely _right_ , even though they were stuck in a coat room, the only light coming from the small LED in Lexa’s phone, both quite intoxicated – and Lexa wouldn’t have wanted their first kiss to be any other way. It was with Clarke, and apparently that was all Lexa needed to make a kiss perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you guys like this or have any suggestions, let me know in the comments! Also, if you're interested, I just started a new Tumblr account at http://mywildimaginings.tumblr.com/ :) Check it out! I always follow people back, too if you want to follow :)


	4. Douchecanoes and Dates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are some homophobic slurs in this chapter, but there's also a fair amount of cuteness to make up for it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took me so long to update - work has been a little insane and I barely have time to write! Regardless, I hope you all enjoy it :)

“Uuuugggghhhh,” Lexa moaned as her cell phone’s alarm pulled her from a great dream about dragons. She dragged her heavy eyelids open and groped the ground in front of her for her phone, needing that noise to _stop_. Once the phone was dealt with, Lexa sighed, sitting up and stretching. She gazed at her surroundings with slight confusion before remembering the party last night. After that, Echo had decided it was easier for Lexa to stay at her place than go back to her mom’s house, as that way she could give Lexa a ride to work the next day and let the brunette sleep in an extra twenty minutes. Clarke, too, was next to Lexa on Echo’s floor, Echo having also decided that Clarke was way too drunk to drive home that night. “Echo, Clarke,” Lexa mumbled. She nudged Clarke, and the blonde wordlessly opened her eyes a crack. “Wake up,” Lexa said, louder this time. She gave Echo a nudge then, saying, “We’ve got to go to work.” Echo groaned, sighed, and sat up. Clarke yawned and stretched before she also sat up.

“How are you not throwing up right now?” Echo said, tiredly. “Aren’t you hungover? You were both pretty drunk last night.” Lexa knew that Echo was thinking of the… interesting decisions they had made last night – namely the one wherein Clarke and Lexa made out for approximately four minutes in a coat room, until Echo came and interrupted them. They’d stayed at the party for another half hour after that, chatting and finishing their game of sociables, Clarke and Lexa staying close and giggly the whole time. Lexa sighed slightly, glancing over at Clarke to see how she was reacting to Echo’s question.

Clarke chose to ignore the question, instead offering Lexa a small smile when their eyes met. “Morning,” She said quietly.

“Good morning,” Lexa smiled back. _Nope, not hungover_ , she thought cheerfully.

“Ugh, you both suck,” Echo said, pushing herself off of her bed and stepping nimbly over the piles of blankets Lexa and Clarke had used to make two makeshift mattresses, making her way to the door to her attached bathroom. “You’d better not be making out when I get back!” She called over her shoulder. Lexa and Clarke giggled, stealing glances at each other.

“How are feeling today?” Lexa asked Clarke shyly, hoping, praying that the blonde girl wasn’t grossed out – or worse, hadn’t forgotten the previous night’s events.

“I have a bit of a headache,” Clarke said, looking a little nervous. “Other than that, I’m fine.” Lexa nodded then, not sure what else to say. Clarke took a deep breath, saying, “Lexa, we should probably talk about what happened last night, right? I mean, we were both drunk, and we really don’t know each other that well, and I don’t really know where you stand, so…” Clarke bit her lip, looking at Lexa through her eyelashes. God, Lexa loved those eyes.

“You’re right,” Lexa said with a nod, just relieved that Clarke obviously remembered the kiss and didn’t seem disgusted by Lexa anymore. Lexa hesitated, then. “Like… Do you want to talk now? Cause, I mean… We really should get ready for work – if we’re late and Anya is left with only Lincoln to keep her company, she’ll murder us,” Lexa said, standing and going over to Echo’s wardrobe to find clean t shirts for Clarke and herself. She tossed Clarke a plain white V-neck and took a black shirt showing the lunar cycle for herself. Clarke was glancing around self-conciously, as if looking for a private corner to change in. Lexa rolled her eyes slightly, stripping off her shirt from the party last night, leaving her toned abs and lacy bra exposed. She caught Clarke staring at her, a pink tinge colouring her face. Lexa smirked. “So?” She asked, cocking her hip and resting her hand on it, still holding the t-shirt in her hand. If Lexa had anything, it was body confidence – that just came with the high level of fitness she gained from her long distance running and martial arts training, she supposed. Clarke blanched slightly at the question.

“So… what?” Clarke asked, visibly gulping as she struggled to maintain eye contact with Lexa.

Lexa laughed slightly, and pulled the t-shirt over her head as she said, “So, when should we talk about it?” Straightening her t-shirt she added very seriously, “it seems like a big discussion and I don’t really think we’ll have time to talk about it before work, especially since Echo will be back soon.” Clarke glanced toward the bathroom in surprise, as if she had forgotten that Echo was in there, in spite of the sound of the taps running.

“Right,” She said. “Well, um… Maybe we could like… I don’t know, um… Maybe we could go to dinner to talk about it? Or something else, whatever,” Clarke mumbled looking down at her hands, which were twisting Echo’s t-shirt into a stretched-out knot. Lexa could feel her cheeks warm up slightly as she smiled bashfully.

“I’d like that,” She said quietly, stepping closer to Clarke, wanting to reach out to touch the girl’s arm or –

“Ok, I’m ready when you are,” Echo announced, bursting out of the bathroom fully clothed with perfect makeup. Clarke turned bright red and took a hasty step back from Lexa, slightly bumping into Echo’s desk in the process. Echo raised her eyebrows slightly.

“Right… I’ll, um… I’ll just be…” Clarke held up the t-shirt and nodded slightly, making her way over to the bathroom. The door closed with a snap and Echo turned to Lexa.

“Okay, that was weird. What did I miss?” She asked skeptically, looking at Lexa who had the small smile that Echo hadn’t seen since the days of Costia plastered on her face.

“I think… I think Clarke and I might be going on a date,” She said quietly, so as to avoid being heard by Clarke, just in case the blonde girl didn’t think it was a date at all. She pressed her lips together to dampen her smile slightly as she met Echo’s eyes, which had grown wide with surprise and excitement.

“Oh my god! Lex!” Echo squealed with no regard for her volume. Lexa laughed as the girl pounced on her, knocking her to the ground and smothering her with a hug. Lexa laughed, hugging her friend back hard. It felt so incredible to be able to be so candid with Echo – Lexa never realized how much it had been weighing on her, hiding everything about her sexuality and her relationship with Costia. “Oh, and don’t think you can get away with stealing my moon shirt,” Echo whispered menacingly in Lexa’s ear. Lexa giggled.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” She whispered back, pushing herself into a sitting position to pull on her shoes, cursing herself internally for wearing the low-heeled ankle boots and not having the foresight to grab her worn black sneakers for work. She glanced enviously at the Vans Clarke had opted to wear and the runners Echo was pulling on. Today was going to be a long, painful day of standing for Lexa.

“I just need to grab my shoes and then I’m ready to go!” Clarke chirped cheerfully as she came out of the bathroom, and Lexa had to physically bite her lip to keep her jaw from dropping as she stared at Clarke. The white V-neck, designed to be slightly oversized, exposed a slight amount of Clarke’s cleavage, making Lexa sweat slightly. Clarke had tucked the shirt into her tight, dark wash jeans, which hugged her every curve and accentuated her perfect ass, which Lexa was staring at quite openly until she realized blushing and quickly averted her gaze.

This did not, however, go unnoticed by Echo, who bumped Lexa’s shoulder and whispered, “Didn’t peg you for an ass girl, Lex,” in Lexa’s ear, much to the brunette’s embarrassment. She was relieved to see that it did not appear as though Clarke had noticed the quick exchange. Lexa busied herself by gathering her few things together and tossing the excess blankets and pillows onto Echo’s bed until Clarke said she was ready to go. The three filed down the stairs of Echo’s house, sticking their heads into the living room on the way out to say good bye to Echo’s parents who were reading the morning paper and sipping coffee and didn’t appear in the least to be surprised by the two other girls with their daughter.

“Thanks for letting me stay last night, Echo,” Clarke said as they walked toward the beaten-on Golf in the driveway.

Echo glanced at the girl in surprise. “Wow, she’s a polite one,” She said to Lexa, followed by, “You should hang on to her Lex.” Lexa looked at Echo horrified as she reached to open the door on the passenger side. “What?” Echo asked innocently. “As a friend, obviously! Goodness, you lesbians are so touchy,” She said, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder as she got into the driver’s seat. Lexa stood dumbstruck, hand on the handle but unable to force it to move. Lesbian. _Lesbian._ That was what she was… She was a lesbian. She bit her lip, staving off the smile that threatened to distort her face, and opened the door, sliding in coolly, giving Echo her best death glare in the process. Echo simply grinned back at her, seeing right through her false glares. Lexa’s eyes relented slightly, understanding what Echo had done – she was trying to normalize the term for Lexa, get her used to the sound of it. Lexa sighed slightly, and gave a small smile in thanks. Echo nodded back with a wide grin, and narrowed her eyes slightly. Lexa frowned. Echo stared. Lexa raised an eyebrow. Clarke was silent in the back seat, watching the nonverbal exchange with interest. Lexa sighed, giving up on the staring match with Echo and slumping against her seat. Echo laughed triumphantly and turned on her car, sliding it into reverse to back out of the driveway. “Oh, and you are welcome any time, Clarke,” She added as the car whipped onto the road. Clarke smiled happily at that, bobbing her head in thanks.

 

* * *

 

Work was excruciating. Lexa restocked the trays of cookies for hours, occasionally taking short breaks to venture into the walk-in to cool off. She was right in the middle of wrapping six-dozen gingerbread faces to be sent to the hospital when a group of around twenty teens came in. Lexa sighed. She so didn’t feel like dealing with this right now, especially given that Anya and Lincoln, who had done the morning shift, had left already along with Indra, meaning that, given that Gustus and Echo were busy ringing through the orders on cash, Lexa and Clarke were the only two available to put together each of their orders. It was hectic, and Clarke was inexperienced and slow, so Lexa had to deal with the brunt of the orders, quickly causing her to feel frazzled. She made it through with a level head, though, and finally there were only two people left to serve – a dark-haired teenage boy and his smug-looking friend. The two were wearing muscle shirts with backwards snapbacks and mirror-Raybans. Lexa glanced at Clarke and made a face, smiling as Clarke matched her expression. They’d been sharing these glances all day, subtly rolling eyes at the customers who took ages to decide on what they wanted or making faces behind the backs of rude customers, and every time she saw Clarke stifle a giggle or bite her lip to stop smiling, Lexa’s stomach erupted in butterflies and fireworks exploded in her head. Lexa kept catching herself staring at Clarke, watching the way her ponytail cascaded over her the perfect curve of her shoulder, enjoying the way the wide V-neck of her borrowed baggy shirt kept slipping off of her shoulder, exposing the strap of her bra and a small white scar next to it. Lexa looked ravenously at it, wanting nothing more than to stroke the girl’s bare skin and kiss her scar, as if this touch could heal any hurt that she may have felt in the past.

“Excuse me… Earth to Ms. Gorgeous…” Lexa’s eyes snapped up to meet the mirror-lensed gaze of the boy standing in front of her.

She wrinkled her nose at him distastefully. “What did you just say?” She asked skeptically. The boy grinned widely, leaning one arm on the glass counter. Lexa’s lip curled. It looked like the boy was flexing his arm, and while his bicep was large, the only thing about them that Lexa found impressive was how impressively disgusting she found them.

“I called you gorgeous, darling,” Mr. Sunglasses quirked his eyebrows. Lexa felt nauseous. She glanced over at Clarke who was watching her subtly while helping the boy’s friend.

“Please take your arm off the counter,” Lexa said stiffly, “And tell me what I can get for you.” She gestured to the baked goods, not quite meeting the boy’s eyes.

“How about your number, sexy,” The boy smirked, standing up straighter.

“Um, how about some pastries,” Lexa mumbled, starting to feel flustered. The boy shook his head in mock confusion.

“What, are you a dyke or something?” He asked disgustedly, a hard mocking tone edging his voice. Lexa opened her mouth in shock, but before she could say anything a voice boomed out behind her.

“What did you just say?” Gustus said, sounding pissed. Lexa jumped at the sound of his voice, not having seen him come up behind her.

“Dude, chill,” Mr. Muscle Shirt said snarkily. “This is behind me and her, not you.” Gustus laughed slightly, and walked away. The boy looked at his friend mockingly, not noticing as Gustus made his way to the other side of the counter. His friend nodded his head in Gustus’s direction, and the boy turned to face all six feet five inches of Gustus. Gustus crossed his arms, which were more muscular than the snapback boy’s arms ever would be.

He looked down at the kid and said quietly, “What was that?” The boy swallowed, looking nervous now.

“Look man, just back off, okay? Cause this has nothing to do with you.” The boy shifted and stared at Gustus, as if to say _what are you going to do?_ Everyone in the store was silent, watching the exchange. Echo had finished ringing through the last of the other teenagers who had come in and was now openly staring at the face-off. Clarke kept nervously glancing between Gustus and the boy, and Lexa was looking at the ground, trying not to cry at the boy’s mean comment.

Gustus frowned deeply at the boy. “See, that’s not how I see it,” he said, clearly trying to keep himself calm. “The way I see it, you are harassing my dear coworker and using disgusting intolerant terms. Which is unacceptable.” Gustus let out a huff of air in disgust. “Either you leave, or I make you leave.” He said, stepping closer to the boy and cracking his knuckles threateningly. The boy wrinkled his nose and narrowed his eyes at Gustus.

Huffing slightly, he turned to his friend and loudly declared, “Whatever, bro. Stupid dykes like that bitch aren’t worth it anyway.” Lexa looked up then, tears springing into her eyes. She met the gaze of the friend and he looked at her pityingly before following his friend out of the store. Lexa’s hand shook as she covered her mouth with it. She stood stuck to the ground for a minute, meeting Gustus’s eyes and nodding her thank you. She felt her chin start to wobble then, and the tears in her eyes threatened to spill over. She forced her legs to move, to carry her away into the back corner of the stock room where she sank to the floor, crying.

It was a few minutes of quiet sobbing before Lexa heard footsteps. She sniffled and tried to compose herself as Clarke came into view. She looked at Lexa sitting heartbroken on the floor and immediately knelt beside the girl, wrapping her in a hug. Lexa leaned into the hug without fully realizing what she was doing.

“I’m sorry,” Clarke whispered into Lexa’s hair. “I’m so sorry he said those things to you. It was unacceptable. No one should be victimized because of their sexuality, or more accurately, because someone’s ego is bruised. I’m sorry,” Clarke apologized again, rubbing Lexa’s back soothingly. “You’re incredible, Lexa. You don’t deserve this,” Clarke whispered. She gave the brunette a tight squeeze then and pulled back slightly, looking at Lexa. Lexa raised her eyes to meet Clarke’s, suddenly aware of how close they were. She gazed into them, memorizing every detail of the clear blue orbs. Somewhere in the middle of her staring, she realized that Clarke was smiling slightly. She raised her thumb up to Lexa’s face, slowly running it along the girl’s cheekbone. Lexa’s breath hitched at her touch. “Your mascara is running a bit,” Clarke whispered, sounding a bit breathless. Lexa’s head was too overwhelmed by Clarke’s closeness, by her piercing eyes and perfect lips, to care about her own raccoon eyes. All she wants to do is eliminate what little space is left between them, to have Clarke’s body pressed tightly to her own, to share the same air, to kiss her. To feel her lips once again, and to explore the terrain of the blonde’s body with her own lips and tongue – Lexa pulled away. These thoughts are dangerous, and she can’t help but blush at them slightly. Clarke clears her throat, and Lexa raises her eyes yet again to timidly meet Clarke’s. She suddenly realized how… vulnerable she was. She felt exposed, like her guard had been down without her even realizing it. Clarke apparently had that effect on her.

“Hey,” Clarke said quietly, smiling slightly. Lexa tilted her head slightly, confused. Clarke seemed to take the head-tilt-confusion and general lack of tears as an invitation to continue. “So, um, you’re like, really pretty,” She said. “Like, kind of gorgeous actually. And, I mean, I was wondering,” Lexa swallowed and nodded, her eyes wide. She couldn’t quite believe what Clarke was saying. “Do you think Gustus would beat me up if I asked for your number?” Clarke finished, biting her lip slightly as she leaned a little further back from Lexa so as to see her expression a little clearer. Lexa looked at the ground in an attempt to hide how embarrassingly wide her smile was.

“Only if I didn’t want to give you my number,” She replied softly, smirking slightly at Clarke, who was now looking slightly flustered. The blond bit her lip and shook her head slightly.

“And? Do you want to give me your number?” She asked, her voice shaking a little. Lexa offered a small smile and nodded silently, biting her lip hard to suppress the squeal of joy and excitement that was threatening to explode out of her. Any thoughts of hurt and anger had completely vanished, and Lexa could no longer think of any reason she had run off to the back room excepting for the fact that it was the perfect place to talk privately with Clarke. Clarke, who was sitting _so close_ to Lexa that she could smell the girl’s shampoo. Clarke, who had managed to move to get her phone out of her back pocket without Lexa noticing – Clarke, who was now holding said phone out for Lexa to input her phone number. A jolt of electricity shot through Lexa as she brushed her hand against Clarke’s while reaching for the phone. She created herself a new contact and filled in her cell phone number, leaving the other spaces blank, before handing the phone back. Clarke looked at it for a second before reaching out an arm and motioning for Lexa to come closer. Lexa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, and Clarke held up the phone, ready to take a selfie of the two of them.

“Clarke! No,” Lexa said, seeing her face on the screen. She hadn’t realized how much her mascara had actually been running.

“Come on, Lexa!” Clarke insisted, wrapping arm tightly around the brunette so that she couldn’t get away. Lexa gestured to her under eyes wordlessly, not feeling that Clarke should need more of an explanation as to why she didn’t want a photo together. She didn’t want to look like shit in their first photo together – this would, after all, probably be a photo she cherished forever, regardless of what happened between her and Clarke. “Please, Lexa?” Clarke begged, pouting. “I think you look cute! The raccoon eyes suit you,” Clarke teased, nudging Lexa’s side. Lexa sighed, and looked at Clarke, who nodded earnestly.

“Fine,” She grumbled, and Clarke grinned, once again wrapping her arm around the brunette’s shoulders, causing Lexa’s heart to flutter. She would probably chop her own leg off if Clarke asked her to, which was a terrifying thought seeing as how she’d only just met the girl. She’d never felt that way with Costia, and she’d known her for a lot longer before they started… being a thing, for lack of a better word – if anything Lexa had felt more guarded and cautious when she was with Costia. It scared her how free she felt around Clarke, but even as she thought that, she smiled at the photo Clarke had taken. Without really realizing it, both of the girls had sort of angled their bodies towards each other, and despite their eyes facing the camera, it was obvious that their smiles, bright and bold in Clarke’s case and shy and awestruck in Lexa’s, were directed at each other rather than the screen. _We look like a couple_ , Lexa thought, not unhappily. Clarke smiled and stood, holding her hand out for Lexa.

“Ready to face the world again?” She asked with a slight smile. _No,_ Lexa wanted to say. _No, I want to spend as much time back here with you as possible, before I have to go back out there and pretend like nothing has happened, pretend like you didn’t just make my heart try to explode out of my chest_. But she doesn’t say that – she doesn’t say anything, because she’s afraid if she opens her mouth, she might accidently say something stupid like _I’m falling for you harder and faster than I’ve ever fallen for anyone, and if you don’t feel the same way about me, I might actually die from a broken heart_. So instead, she just nods and accepts Clarke’s hand, enjoying the feeling of the girl’s skin on her own and dreaming about what it would be like to hold that hand for longer than the microsecond it takes to hoist Lexa up off the ground. Lexa, now standing and bereft of Clarke’s hand, sighs to herself and shakes her head slightly before following the blonde back out to the store front, wiping off her smudged mascara as she went.

* * *

 

(8:37 pm) **(447)-828-4164:** Hey, Lexa, so I was thinking for our dinner we could go to this Mexican place I found on Yelp? Apparently the tacos are legendary

(8:38 pm) **(447)-828-4164:** This is Clarke by the way

(8:38 pm) **(447)-828-4164:** Not some random weirdo stalker

 

Lexa smiled happily as she saw the three back-to-back messages on her phone. She picked it up and quickly texted back.

 

(9:14 pm) **Lexa Woods:** Mexican sounds good! What time/day?

(9:16 pm) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** Friday at 7? I’m not working but I’ll pick you up after your shift?

(9:17 pm) **Lexa Woods:** Haha I can take the bus too you know

(9:19 pm) **Random Weirdo Stalker:**  I wouldn’t be a very good date if I made you take the bus, now, would I?

 

Lexa’s heart fluttered. _Date_. So this was a _date_. A wide grin split her face and she even allowed one small squeal to escape, paired with a small clap.

 

(9:20 pm) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** Not that this has to be a date. I don’t know. Whatever.

(9:20 pm) **Random Weirdo Stalker:**  Unless you want it to be a date

(9:21 pm) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** Cause I’d be okay with that too

(9:22 pm) **Lexa Woods:** I’ll see you Friday for our date, dork

(9:23 pm) **Random Weirdo Stalker:**  Okay! Okay awesome!!

(9:24 pm) **Random Weirdo Stalker:**  But technically you’ll also see me at work Wednesday and Thursday before our date… dork

 

Lexa laughed and shook her head slightly before bidding Clarke farewell and turning off her phone so she could focus on the German assignment she’d been putting off all evening, but that was difficult given that all she could think about was her upcoming _date_ with Clarke-freaking-whateverherlastnamewas! Lexa frowned. What _was_ Clarke’s last name? She had seen it on the girl’s resume… This was going to bother her. Irritated, Lexa sighed and opened a new tab on Chrome, navigating away from the translator she’d been using for her German work. She opened her Facebook, and after responding to a couple of messages (one a group message between Anya, Echo, Gustus, Lincoln, and herself and the other a message from her older brother, Kohen, who had moved out three years ago and never looked back, except to check in on Lexa), she clicked on the search bar. She felt guilty, like she was invading the blonde girl’s privacy somehow. She pushed those thoughts down though, and typed _Clarke_ into the bar, studying the names that filtered through. Fortunately, Clarke did not have a super common name, and sure enough, the fourth one down showed a tiny picture of the blonde with her arms wrapped around two dark-haired girls. Lexa clicked her name – Clarke _Griffin_ – and began looking through the girl’s profile – or at least, she tried to. Clarke’s privacy settings didn’t allow for Lexa to see any of the girl’s other photos, her friend list, or any personal information except for her gender. Lexa sighed slightly, and dragged her finger along the trackpad of her laptop until the clicker was hovering over the _Add Friend_ button. Lexa bit her lip nervously before clicking it. She stared at the _Friend Request Pending_ for what seemed like hours (but was really just over 30 seconds) before sighing dramatically and navigating back to her translator. Her computer made a cheerful noise as a small (1) appeared next to her Facebook tab. She clicked on the tab and saw that Clarke’s page, which her Facebook was still open on, had considerably more information available to her than before. The square box on her profile had changed once again, now declaring Clarke and Lexa to be _Friends_. Lexa grinned, clicking once again on Clarke’s profile picture, now able to make it larger and scroll through all her other pictures. She let her mouse hover over their faces – Raven Reyes and Octavia Blake were their names. Lexa laughed. Figured Clarke would be friends with Lincoln’s new… whatever she was. Lexa continued scrolling through Clarke’s profile, smiling at pictures of Clarke, again with Octavia and Raven, all in the Sky School’s soccer uniforms holding up a trophy with medals around their necks. She gasped at an incredible drawing, signed in the lower right corner with Clarke’s initials, captioned ‘Finally finished it… Not my favourite, but still pretty pleased with how it turned out’. She laughed at a picture of Clarke with a group of about 15 other kids all wearing orange prison jumpsuits captioned ‘The prisoners of SHA’. She stared with rapt attention at a video Clarke had posted of herself singing and playing guitar. Tears sprung into Lexa’s eyes as she realized what song it was – it was a song that she and her dad used to sing together all the time before he was killed, and it broke Lexa’s heart a little bit to see someone so beautiful and angelic singing a song that inspired such sadness.

Closing the video, Lexa saw that she had 26… 27… 28… a lot of notifications she clicked on them, confused. She almost never got notifications, unless she had a new profile picture, and even then it was usually only 9 or 10 people who bothered to like them. Lexa’s friends were a special brand of apathetic. Upon opening the ever-growing list of notifications, however, Lexa realized that they were all from Clarke. It seemed that the blond was making it her mission to like every single photo Lexa had ever posted – Lexa’s face flushed with embarrassment, but that didn’t stop the small smile from making its way to her face. Two could play at this game.

An hour later, Lexa was fairly certain she’d liked all of Clarke’s profile pictures and cover photos, as well as all of her photos of her art and the videos of her singing. She had avoided liking any pictures with Clarke’s friends, because she didn’t want to seem like a total stalker – not that Clarke had had the same sense of discretion on her liking spree. Lexa yawned slightly and stretched, pleased with her handiwork. She looked at the time and nearly had a heart attack. She was planning on going for a run before school the next morning, which meant waking up at 5:00 am latest, and she had barely started on her German assignment, not to mention her biology, which she had saved for last as a reward for finishing the rest of her homework. Biology was by far Lexa’s favourite subject, so usually saving it for last was good motivation to finish the rest of her work quickly. Today, however, it seemed like more of a burden than anything else, and she knew that whatever she did on it would be much worse than her usual work. Irritated with herself for allowing her mind to wander, Lexa exited Facebook and turned on the ‘self control’ function on her computer, thus blocking her access to Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and all her other distracting websites. She put in her iPod and shuffled the soundtracks from both of the Pitch Perfect movies, her version of not-that-guilty pleasure songs. She smiled as Anna Kendrick’s voice drifted through her ears and settled in to finish her homework.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are interested in seeing some more of me and my ships, visit my tumblr! mywildimaginings.tumblr.com (there also may be some fan art coming if I ever find the time to finish it!)


	5. THE RETURN OF CLEXA (finally)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two years later and I'm still getting comments/kudos on this piece! I really appreciate you guys sticking with me through my super long, unplanned hiatus. I've been dealing with a lot of really overwhelming stuff these past two years, and I'm only just getting back into writing. This chapter is mostly about me just getting back into the swing of things, so nothing terribly exciting happens, but I'm already writing the next bit which may or may not include Clarke's POV, so things are going to get a bit spicier soon ;)

Lexa groaned as she took off her running shoes, dragging her feet as she made her way to her bathroom, silently hating herself for getting up so early to go for a run before school. She’d been exhausted all week thanks to her intense schedule. Her track team had a district competition coming up, which would determine who would go on to represent the area in the state competition, so her track coach had been running the whole team ragged, and now that it was Thursday, Lexa was about ready sleep as they ran. Yawning, she turned the tap of her shower, taking off her shirt and shorts while she waited for the water to heat up. Stepping under the hot stream of water, Lexa let out a sigh of relief. It had been a surprisingly chilly morning, and she had definitely been underdressed in her tank top and shorts for the cool temperature. The warm water stung a bit as it hit her cold skin, causing her to shudder slightly as she lathered her hair with shampoo.  
Ten minutes later, Lexa was drying her hair with a towel when her phone chirped. Looking at the lit up screen, her face broke out into a wide smile when she saw the text was from Clarke.  
  
(6:57 am) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** Ew, I feel like death  
(6:57 am) **Lexa Woods:** Awe, I’m sorry! Morning workout?  
(6:59 am) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** What the fuck? No! I just woke up! Please don’t tell me you’ve worked out already  
(7:00 am) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** omg Lexa!!! Are u a morning person?!  
(7:01 am) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** I can’t believe I like a morning person… dear god, this will never work out!  
(7:02 am) **Lexa Woods:** Clarke calm down! It’s ok, if we can make it past the fact that you’re a sky kid and I’m from Tondc, I think we can make it through this  
(7:04 am) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** wait, was it an issue that I’m from the Ark??  
(7:09 am) **Lexa Woods:** only to ignorant elitists (and in this case, Tondc is the elite)  
(7:10 am) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** … so in other words not you?  
(7:12 am) **Lexa Woods:** definitely not me  
(7:17 am) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** oh thank god  <3 I was worried!  
  
“Lexa?” Lexa’s mother opened her bedroom door, bleary-eyed and sounding a bit drunk. “What are you doing up?”  
“I have to go to school, mom,” Lexa said quietly. “It’s morning already.” Lexa’s mother looked at her in confusion for a minute before seemingly losing interest in the time of day.  
“Who are you texting?” She asked, nodding her head at the phone in Lexa’s hand. Lexa bit her lip nervously.  
“No one. Someone from work…” Lexa locked her phone screen and put the device in her pocket. Lexa’s mother stared at her for a minute, looking suspicious, before shrugging in nonchalance and turning to leave.  
“Don’t stay up too late,” She mumbled. Lexa sighed and squeezed her eyes shut for a minute before pulling her phone out again to reply.  
  
(7:24 am) **Lexa Woods:** Hahah only thing to worry about here is that I’m going to miss my bus if I don’t hurry up and leave!  
(7:25 am) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** okok, point taken :P have a good day at school then! I’ll see you at work  
  
Lexa smiled at the interaction as she shoved things in her large black backpack. Talking to Clarke was so easy – it was like talking to Echo or Anya, people she’d known for so much longer. Grabbing a green and navy flannel to wear over her black t-shirt, Lexa made her way hurriedly out the door, jogging down the street to catch her bus and making it to the stop just as the bus pulled up. Nodding her acknowledgement to a few people she recognized from classes, Lexa found a seat in the very back corner of the bus, leaning her head on the window as she dozed quietly until they arrived at the grey cement block that was Tondc High. As Lexa trudged her way up the steep steps, she heard a voice behind her.  
“Lexa! Hey! Lexa!” The voice didn’t belong to Echo, so Lexa was inclined to ignore it – whoever it was, though, didn’t take the hint, instead raising their voice further so they were practically shouting. “LEXAAAA!” Lexa turned around abruptly, glaring at everyone on the steps below her. A couple of nervous glances in the right direction told Lexa that the person shouting had been the scrawny year 8 boy making his way up the steps slowly, looking nervous.  
“What?” Lexa said, her tone cool.  
“I, um… I just wanted to say, um. You, uh, did some volunteering at the church a couple months ago, and my dad’s a preacher at the church so I saw you a lot, but I don’t think you noticed me, but anyway, I just wanted to say, um… Do wanna like… go to a movie some time?” Lexa balked at him. The kid only came up to her shoulder height-wise, not to mention the fact that he was two years younger than her. Not to mention the fact that… well that she was interested in someone else. Lexa took a breath. Ok, so it wasn’t like the whole school knew about her – that was a good thing. But still… it would be convenient for this type of situation if people knew. Lexa looked down at the kid – Aidyn was his name. She remembered him vaguely from her volunteering, but that definitely wasn’t something to go in his favour. She had hated volunteering with the church – she had only done it because her mother had wanted her to, and at least at first, their involvement in the church seemed to help her mom. It wasn’t long before her mother began drinking again, though, and when that happened, Lexa stopped volunteering with them, stopped going to church altogether. Stopped doing anything with her mother. Lexa sighed.  
“Look, I, um. I’m… I can’t go out with you,” Lexa’s face burned. She wished she was anywhere else, literally anywhere other than here. “I’m, uh, I am seeing someone.” She said the words stiffly, and she was sure that the kid would call her on her bluff and figure it out and spread rumours around the whole school about her. She shuddered at the thought, ready to backtrack and think of a better reason not to go out with the kid. Before she could open her mouth, though, the kid sighed.  
“Yeah,” He mumbled, shoulders slumping. “I figured you wouldn’t want to go out with me… I just thought I’d ask,” Lexa sighed. She felt like a horrible person – but at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel like she had dodged a bullet.  
“It’s okay… I mean, maybe we can be friends or something,” Lexa did not want new friends.  
“No offense, but I have friends. I don’t have a girlfriend,” Aidyn said grumpily. You and me both, kid, Lexa thought. Instead of saying that though, she just shrugged and turned to walk away, not totally sure how to end the conversation. Her face was still burning with embarrassment as she opened the doors to the school and hurried down the hall towards her locker, where Echo was waiting for her.  
“Hey girl,” Echo said absently, not looking up from her phone. She’d been playing Candy Crush on it obsessively since she finally cracked and downloaded the game two weeks before.  
“Hey,” Lexa nodded her acknowledgement as she unlocked her locker, grabbing out her physics textbook and her English poetry and grammar books, shoving them into her backpack. “It’s physics first today, yeah?” Echo nodded.  
“Yup, physics, then I have psych, then our double German, and then don’t forget that we have track practice instead of gym class today.” Lexa nodded, thankful that she hadn’t gotten her days mixed up, because she’d had barely any time to work on her math homework after she was finished at Grounders the night before.  
The warning bell rang and Lexa slammed her locker door shut while Echo stowed her phone away in her back pocket, and together they made their way through the crowded halls to the science wing, which was inconveniently located on the opposite side of the school from when their lockers were. Physics consisted primarily of their teacher, Mr Osiris, talking about the final projects the students were supposed to do as part of their advanced placement in the course. He wanted them to build projectile rockets in partners, then on the last day of classes before their exam, they would launch them in the quad and measure whose flew the highest.  
“That’s all I want, guys,” Mr Osiris said. “I just want a car - I don’t care how you build it or what you use, as long as every element is built by you. You really want to think about the aerodynamics of this - you want it to fly high, and to achieve that you’ll need something that will be able to fly up in a smooth line, so think of how that might happen. That’s all I’m going to say.” When the bell rang most people were chatting excitedly, but Lexa was frowning at the thought of adding another time intensive project to her already overloaded schedule. As she rushed back over to the other side of the school for her English class, bidding her farewell to Echo, she began to make a mental schedule of what she’d need to do when. She sat in her usual seat in the class, closest to the window and farthest from the front. She didn’t know anyone in her honours English class, and she didn’t particularly care to know any of the over-eager students who tried way too hard to impress their teacher, Niamh, who had insisted on the first day that her students call her by her first name. She was young, a recent graduate from University of Polis, and her eager grin and nervous babbling showed it. She was pretty, in a teacher sort of way. She had an edgy short haircut that was buzzed all around the bottom of her head and long on the top, her curls swooping over to the left side of her head. She often wore a leather jacket and Blundstones, and she always had her motorcycle helmet resting on top of the shelf next to her desk. On the first day of class when Lexa first saw her, she’d been skeptical of the woman’s ability to teach - it seemed like a career path that wouldn’t have meshed well with her seemingly badass nature. Lexa was quickly proven wrong, though, when the first words out of her new teacher’s mouth were about how much she loved Harry Potter and how she was a giant poetry and literature nerd. That was all it took to win Lexa over, in the end, and it definitely hadn’t hurt that her teacher was a self-proclaimed Slytherin, but a tested Ravenclaw, same as Lexa.  
Sitting on the cold plastic seat that was attached by a metal arm to the small desk, Lexa pulled out the poem they’d been assigned on Tuesday - by far her favourite one they’d read so far - and reread the comments she’d made in the margins of the book. As the other students in the class chatted and giggled loudly, girls flipping their hair for the boys they thought were cute and the boys not paying them any attention, instead comparing scars from old sport’s injuries, Lexa sat quietly, mouthing the words of the poem as she read through it in her mind.  
“Alright, everyone,” Niamh said loudly as the bell marked the start of class. She looked very nice today, Lexa noticed, and she found herself wondering about her teacher’s sexuality. Surely no straight woman would have the haircut Niamh had, or would wear that badass leather jacket with leather boots and torn black skinny jeans that hugged her every curve, and - Lexa had to stop her train of thought before it got out of hand. She bit her lip and looked down at her hands - apparently her coming out to herself had unlocked something bold in herself. “How did you all like the poem we read? Did anyone have any thoughts or critiques of it? Any comments on what the author may have been alluding to?” One of the suck-ups in the class raised her hand.  
“I have a critique,” She said, and Niamh nodded with a skeptical glint in her eye. “I think it was written really poorly - I mean, there was no consistency in the rhyme pattern or the stanza length, so it just didn’t make any sense.” Lexa rolled her eyes - the poem they’d read, The Lonely Land, was a free verse poem, so of course it didn’t have consistency - that was just part of what made it beautiful. A few people nodded and murmured their agreements. Niamh looked disappointed.  
“So no one liked the poem?” She asked, scanning the class full of blank faces. Lexa raised her hand, and Niamh nodded at her.  
“I thought it was incredible. Especially the last line - ‘this is a beauty of strength, broken by strength and still strong’ - that really resonated with me. I thought that AJM Smith did a really nice job of showing how even when you are completely alone and feel small and insignificant, you have an astounding significance to the rest of your surroundings.” Lexa’s classmates all turned their blank gazes to her as she spoke, and she could tell that she was the only one who felt like the poem had been brilliant. The only one aside from Niamh, that is, who was grinning at her broadly.  
“Yes,” Niamh said eagerly. “Precisely! Okay, I want to read you the poem, so you can all really think about what Lexa has said and feel those tones and that strength, and we can discuss it again afterwards.”  
The rest of the English class passed by slowly, with the rest of the class failing to comprehend pretty much everything Niamh said. It wasn’t until the end of class when Niamh called Lexa’s name that her interest was again piqued.  
“Lexa! Would you mind staying to chat a minute?” Niamh smiled at Lexa, who nodded dumbly as the rest of the class filed out, grabbing their marked essays from the table at the front. Niamh had something in her hand - Lexa’s essay. The assignment had been pretty simple, since it was still only October and they hadn’t really gotten too far into the course. Niamh had wanted to get to know her students, so she had asked the class to write a critical essay that looked at two works - any works were fine by her, be it novels, poems, songs, art, or anything else - and why those two works were particularly significant in the students’ lives. Lexa had chosen to write on Hiromi Goto’s novel Half World and paired it with the poem by Irving Layton, The Bull Calf. She had been moved deeply by both works, and she spoke of how The Bull Calf made her feel weak and useless, but how it also made her realize and understand that those feelings were not always avoidable, and how much of its significance to her came from the time in which she read it for the first time - right after her father’s death. Writing on Half World was a lot harder for Lexa, because a lot of it reminded her of her own struggles with her mother, and her struggles with herself. In the end, though, she’d been pleased with what she’d written, and she thought she might get an A on the paper, or even an A+. Now, though, as she watched the last of the students leave and Niamh close the door behind them, she wasn’t so sure. She felt her phone vibrate three times in rapid succession - the custom notification pattern she’d set for Clarke’s texts - and felt some slight comfort in that.  
“Was there something wrong with my paper?” Lexa asked finally, unable to stand the silence. Her phone vibrated again with a text from Clarke, and her hand instinctively went to her jacket pocket.  
“No, actually, your essay was very beautifully written. You have a real talent, Lexa, you know that?” Lexa blushed and was about to thank her teacher when she continued on. “However, I did notice some themes that, as a teacher, I wanted to talk to you about.” Lexa was confused. Themes? Had she had a comma splice error that ran throughout the essay or something? Niamh noticed her confusion and smiled kindly. “I just noticed that a lot of this essay seems to relate to a lot of struggles you face, and the poem and novel you chose to write about are not exactly cheery.” Lexa understood, finally.  
“You mean my dad? He died four years ago, and I definitely went through a big period of depression without having him here anymore, but since he’s been gone I’ve healed a lot from the experience.” When her father first died, all of Lexa’s teachers had heard about it - all of Tondc had heard about it, really, since it was widely advertised in the newspaper’s front page with her father’s stoic face in his police uniform and with Lexa and her mother’s tear-soaked faces at his funeral printed side-by-side above the article. After a while of constantly being asked if she was alright, Lexa learned what to say to get people to stop worrying about her. “I miss him, of course, but I’ve had to get stronger without him, which isn’t a bad thing, I guess.” Lexa shrugged nonchalantly. Niamh’s eyes narrowed as she inspected Lexa’s face.  
“Actually, Lexa, I was more referring to your relationship to your mother - your current living situation. I could tell from the essay that you had a very strong bond with your father, but it seems like you and your mother might be struggling a little more, and it seems like that may be causing you a lot of turmoil and pain.” Lexa’s heart rate quickened. “I’m not here to psychoanalyze you or force you to share everything with me, but I just wanted to let you know that if you ever need someone to talk to - maybe someone a little older than your friends, someone with a bit more wisdom under their belt, I am here for you.” Niamh seemed to take a bit of a breath, suddenly unsure of herself. “I speak from personal experience here,” she said. “I know that depression and anxiety are things that it seems like no one will understand, but trust me when I say that there’s always other people out there who can relate to you.” With that, Niamh gave Lexa a slight nod and a smile before handing her her paper. Lexa flipped to the last page, the marking scheme, to see her grade. She’d gotten 97%. She looked incredulously at Niamh, who just shrugged and said, “I told you it was beautifully written - you dug deep and you were genuine. Keep it up, and you could be a very strong candidate for some of the best literature programs in the country.” Lexa balked at that slightly - she’d always loved English, but at the same time she knew that she was destined to go into sciences. How else would she earn money than with a degree in medicine or dentistry? She followed Niamh to the door, shoving her essay in her backpack as she walked.  
“Thanks, Niamh,” she mumbled quietly, still thinking.  
“No problem, Lexa. Remember what I said,” Niamh said seriously, before opening the door and releasing Lexa into the hallway. Lexa sighed and pulled out her phone, hoping talking to Clarke would take her mind off of things.

(10:45) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** Hey girl, did you fall from Jupiter? Cause your ass is out of this world!  
(10:46) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** I’m so sorry, that was from my friend Raven… using the term friend very loosely here. She’s an idiot. How’s your day going?

Lexa smiled and chewed on her thumbnail as she responded to Clarke’s text.

(10:53) **Lexa Woods:** No worries, Clarke. Sounds like something my friends would do, so I understand! I think I’m dying - I got another project assigned today, because I wasn’t busy enough. School is making me look forward to putting cookies on trays for 8 million years at the bakery!  
(10:55) **Random Weirdo Stalker:** Wow, that hurts, Lex. I thought that you’d at least be looking forward to seeing me more than traying cookies?

Lexa smiled at the speed of Clarke’s response, but tried to tone it down as she neared the bench in the main hallway that she and her friends sat at.  
“Heya Lexa, who ya talking to?” Echo asked overly dramatically, slinging her arm around Lexa’s shoulders as she peeked not-so-subtly at Lexa’s phone. “Ooooohhh Clarke!” She all but squealed, making Lexa’s blush deepen. Lexa punched her friend in the arm only somewhat hard and glared at her.  
“Shut up, Echo. Go bother your boyfriend.” Echo stuck out her tongue at Lexa before sliding back on the bench next to Nyko who, despite what most people thought, was not Echo’s boyfriend.  
“Who’s Clarke?” Nyko asked, and Lexa’s other friends looked her way. She squirmed under their stares, immediately uncomfortable with the attention.  
“Sh… no one,” Lexa said, hearing her mistake immediately. Echo’s eyes widened and she tried to save Lexa.  
“Do you have any hand sanitizer?” She asked no one in particular, eager to draw the attention away from her friend. “Also, Damien Whitetower totally fainted in psych today when we were looking at a fetus on the projector.” No one took Echo’s bait, though, and their gazes remained fixed on Lexa.  
“She? Like… not a guy Clarke, but a girl Clarke?” Nyko probed further. “Why is Echo making fun of you for talking to a girl?” Lexa squirmed internally as Nyko tilted his head to the side. Ash, Nyko’s best friend seemed to be scrutinizing Lexa, digging deeper into her psyche with his eyes. Temi had a small smile on his face as he nudged Baz and raised his eyebrows.  
“I didn’t say she - I said sh. Like shut up,” Lexa was grasping at straws and everyone could see it.  
“Yo, Lex, is she hot? Cause like, no other reason needed if she is.” Lexa bit her lip. It wasn’t like her friends were looking at her judgmentally… And if they were anything like her friends at the bakery, they’d probably already know. She was torn between protecting her identity and outing herself, but thankfully before she could decide, the bell rang.  
“We won’t forget, Lexa! We’ll be back to bother you at lunch!” Temi raised his hand to wave as he walked away with Baz and Ash towards their chemistry class.  
“I have student council, so no you won’t!” Lexa called out down the hall, flipping them off with a grin when they turned around to look at her again. Sighing, she turned back to Echo, who was hanging back slightly behind Nyko, who had started to make his way towards their German class.  
“I am so, so sorry,” Echo grabbed Lexa’s hand and squeezed it tightly, her face lined with anxiety. “I wasn’t thinking beyond Clarke being a unisex name, but I should have known that something would happen if I brought it up, Lexa, I’m so so sorry please know that I didn’t mean for them to realize anything before you’re ready for them to know, I know that was supremely uncool of me, and I’ll always regret that, it was dumb and I’m sorry -”  
“Echo, chill, please.” Lexa squeezed Echo’s hand back reassuringly. “They’re going to find out one way or another, and they are my friends. Besides, we both know that Nyko and Baz are gay, despite what the rest of the school might think, so it’s not like I’m facing an unfriendly crowd here. Honestly, you probably did me a favour.” Echo bit her lip, obviously still feeling bad. “Nou get yu daun. Ai ste hodness yu,” Lexa whispered in Trigedasleng. Don’t worry. I still love you. Echo smiled at Lexa and bumped her shoulder against her friend’s.  
“Wrong language, doofus. We’re supposed to be practicing German, remember?”  
“Achso, wie könnte ich das vergessen?” Lexa responded, rolling her eyes slightly.

* * *

 

By the time school was over, Lexa was thoroughly exhausted. Thanks to her Student Council meeting, she’d managed to put off a confrontation with her friends for another day at least, but between the lack of sleep she’d gotten the night before and the rigorous training their track coach had put the team through during practice in their last period, Lexa felt like she might pass out at any second. Her coach had noticed her lagging, too, and gave her a strict talking-to about wearing herself thin.  
“You won’t be fit to run in the districts if you are falling asleep as you do so, you know that right?” Her coach had asked sternly. “Maybe you should cut back on your shifts at work, hey?” Lexa sighed. She didn’t tell her coach that without those shifts at Grounders, she wouldn’t be able to pay the bills, let alone pay her way to states, should she make it that far. Instead Lexa had just nodded silently before sluggishly continuing with the practice. Now that she was at work, Lexa could hardly function - especially problematic, because Clarke was nowhere to be seen. Granted, Clarke lived all the way across the city from the cafe, but even so, Lexa figured the hour that Indra had granted her after school would have been more than enough time for her to make it to work, especially given that she had a car. But, four had come and gone, and now that it was nearing five, Lexa was really starting to get concerned.  
“Where’s your girlfriend at, Lexa?” Anya was annoyed, and when Anya was annoyed, everyone was annoyed. “Leaving us in the lurch like this isn’t exactly a great way to make a good impression on your best friends.” Lexa bit her lip and looked at the screen of her phone. There was no message from Clarke, whom she had tried to call twice already.  
“I’m sure she’ll be here… she’s probably just having car troubles or something.” Lexa insisted. As if she had heard them talking, Clarke burst through the front doors of the store, apologies streaming out of her mouth before the door even closed behind her. A wave of relief washed over Lexa, who hadn’t even realized just how worried she had been.  
“About time, Ms. Princess,” Anya snarked, irritated. Lexa noticed Clarke flinch slightly at Anya’s words and felt a pang of guilt for Anya’s hardass nature. She shot Anya a glare, but the older girl wasn’t paying her attention.  
“I’m so, so sorry,” Clarke said, a red flush now creeping up to her cheeks. “I - my car broke down this morning, so I had to take it in and I had to take the bus to get here… I got lost.” She was still in her uniform, the blue plaid skirt and white blouse hanging somewhat loosely off her frame. She’d taken off her tie and blazer as she’d walked in the door, and was now shoving both into her backpack while taking out a pair of faded jeans and a purple t-shirt. “I just need to get changed, I’ll be ready in, like, ten seconds.”  
“Whatever, princess,” Anya said, and Clarke frowned at the nickname. She bit her lip as she walked to the bathroom, her shoulders slightly slumped. Lexa wondered what the deal was with that nickname - maybe it wasn’t particularly flattering, but Clarke seemed to be taking it far more seriously than she needed to. Lexa decided to chalk it up to awkwardness over the obvious class difference between Clarke and everyone else at Grounders.  
“Hey,” Lexa said with a small smile when Clarke returned from the washroom. “How was your day? Aside from the car troubles?” Clarke grinned back, glancing over her shoulder briefly to where Anya was cleaning up the back area.  
“It was alright!” She said chipperly. “We’ve got soccer tryouts coming up, and I’m going for the senior varsity team this year instead of the JV team, which is what I did for grades eight and nine. Not too many people have gotten the chance to join varsity in grade ten, but I think my friends Octavia and Raven and I will be able to do it!” Lexa grinned. That was the Clarke she’d gotten accustomed to - almost overwhelmingly positive and cheerful.  
“I’m sure you will,” Lexa agreed. She’d never seen Clarke do any sort of sports activity, but she couldn’t help but have noticed that Clarke was in very good shape - not that she’d spent too long looking at her, of course.  
Most of their shift together passed smoothly, with easy back and forth banter. It wasn’t until they were closing up the shop that Lexa realized neither of them had mentioned their date the next night - immediately she bit her lip, suddenly nervous that Clarke may have forgotten. Just as she was about to mention it, however, Clarke gave her a quick hug and a wave goodbye, calling out over her shoulder, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Lexa!” Lexa stood still, struck my Clarke’s figure walking away. That answered that, then.  
“Tomorrow?” Gustus was locking up the metal gate and he raised a skeptical eyebrow at Clarke. Anya was next to him, holding a plastic bag with leftover sandwiches to be passed out. “What’s tomorrow? Clarke isn’t working…” Lexa bit her lip and glances at Anya, who suddenly had become very interested in looking at the sandwiches in the bag.  
“I guess we sort of… Have a thing tomorrow?” Lexa said, like she was asking a question. She’d forgotten that she hadn’t officially told Gustus yet, and felt bad about going against her earlier promise that he’d be the first to hear about anything new in her life.  
“A thing…” Gustus was smiling, but waited patiently for Lexa to respond.  
“A thing… I guess, like, a date, thing?” Lexa shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I’m sorry, Gus, I should have told you, I just… I didn’t think… I don’t know. I just forgot, I guess.”  
“You forgot about your date?” Gustus was incredulous. “Christ, Lex, for how much you stare at Clarke with heart eyes, I wouldn’t have expected you to forget about a date with the girl!” Lexa blushed.  
“No, I didn’t forget about the date… I guess I just forgot that you didn’t know? Because you seem to know everything about me before even I do?” Lexa bit her lip and looked up at him, unsure of what to expect. Gustus nodded quietly, and finished locking the gate. He shook it a few times, hard, to test the security before stepping back from it. He looked at Lexa very seriously, and suddenly Lexa felt tiny compared to the mountain of a man. She was about to speak again - to say what, she wasn’t sure, but just to break the awkward tension that was building. Before she could get the words out, though, she was being crushed by a giant bear-hug.  
“I love you, Lex. You know that. I’m happy for you. And yes, I did know - you’re not exactly subtle, and I’ve known you since you were five and in love with Posh Spice and Hilary Duff.” Lexa blushed and punched Gustus in the stomach.  
“I did not love them… they were just icons of every 90s kid’s life!” She declared indignantly before leaning further into the hug. “But thanks, Gus,” she added softly.  
Stepping away and releasing Lexa, Guss added, “You do know that this means Clarke and I will have to have a little… chat… though, right?” Lexa opened her mouth to protest, but was interrupted by Anya.  
“I need to chat with her, too, Lex. Non-negotiable.” Anya matched Lexa’s gaze with a hard stare of her own, until finally Lexa cracked.  
“Alright, fine. But be nice, I don’t need you scaring her off!” Lexa warned. Anya and Gustus grinned at each other deviously, probably already planning fifty different ways to make Clarke uncomfortable and afraid of them. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts?


End file.
